Sergeant Daniel Dubois is accustomed to the exhausting climate. It is a mountain after all.
In charge of a stretch of 168 kilometers along the border of Quebec-New York, the frigid climate and the winds of lights are occupational risks while he and his team monitor the area for illegal border crossings.
But there is another element that he and his team are these days: a political storm.
“When it may [U.S. President Donald] Trump is in the news saying this or that, of course he will worry us, “said the veteran official.
“The greatest concern is not knowing … that causes anxiety for our membership.”
Earlier this week, CBC News shaded Dubois for four hours in a stormy day, driving through his patrol area, waiting for advice to enter and reviewing cross points known for new footprints.
Meanwhile, the news alerts would do ping, detailing the last letter of the US administration on the border.
It is the reality of the surveillance of what has become the point of inflammation in the increasingly uncomfortable relationship of Canada-United States, with Trump threatening to impose 25 percent tariffs and use what he calls an “invasion” of fentanyl and migrants as justification.
Sergeant Daniel Dubois, who leads the Border Patrol of Champlain of the RCMP, says that the force has “contingency plans in case something happens”, but that “it is still usual.”
“My job is not to have an opinion about migration. My work is to make sure people are safe,” he said, rounding the police without marking on a rural road near Saint-Bernard-de-Lacolle, which.
But as the officer in charge of a high -profile border section, including how the staff is honest about the stress that the political climate is causing.
“Am I doing the right thing? I don’t know,” he said, removing his sunglasses and shaking his head.
“Who can plan if it will be different tomorrow?”
New technology starts from ‘dance’
While working under the political glow brings stress, it is also promoting more resources to the 49th parallel.
In an effort to placate Trump and avoid a devastating economic blow, the Canadian government is spending $ 1.3 billion to reinforce the border and interrupt the flow to the south, including RCMP equipment with helicopters, drones and other surveillance equipment.
He will make the projects take off, Dubois said, while adding that someone needs to monitor what technology is capturing.
“I can have whatever you want. If I can’t have adequate monitoring, it means anything,” he said.
“It’s like a great dance: everyone has to follow the same movement to work. Technology is just one of those things.”
Concerns about the flow to the north
The president quickly follows his promise to take energetic measures against illegal immigration with raids and deportation. Thursday promised deporting Non-citizen and others who participated in pro-palestinian protests.
While crosses north are an almost daily reality (“the business is constant,” says Dubois) what is disturbing is whether those numbers will increase, he said.
“Is that affecting our work? Maybe, maybe not. We don’t know,” Dubois said.
“We have plans, contingency plans in case something once happens, but now we all ask ourselves what the next phase will be like,” said the Mountie. “Do we expect an increase in spring? I don’t know. Do we expect an increase next week?”
New fears around Roxham Road
As the snow continues to fall, Dubois lowers the car what perhaps is the most infamous rural street in Canada: Roxham Road.
Two concrete blocks and a ditch divide the two countries, but the road offers a straight path to the United States.
It became the epicenter of a migratory crisis during Trump’s first mandate, when the unofficial crossing was used by tens of thousands of asylum applicants and turned the third country’s safe agreement (STCA) into a well -known phrase.
At that time, the agreement allowed the Canadian government to withdraw asylum seekers who tried to enter from the United States, but only at official border crossings.
Asylum seekers could still enter unofficial crossings to make their claims, and did so in mass from 2017 after stricter immigration policies south of the border.
Dubois points out where RCMP once had detention facilities: the lot is now empty and covered with snow.
The structures were demolished in 2023 after Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and the former president of the United States, Joe Biden, reviewed the STC to include the entire earth’s border.
He has finished the bottleneck in Roxham Road, but comes with new concerns in the area, Dubois said.
According to the updated agreement, migrants can claim asylum in Canada if they can enter the country and remain without being detected for 14 days.
Dubois said the police care that people will drive dense thickets and throughout a more dangerous land to avoid detection.
From a police perspective, Dubois said that the old system was “easier to manage than spread its resources” along the vast open fields of the area.
People arrested in winter with shorts: official
There is also a deep concern for people’s safety.
“This time of the year you still see people with sneakers,” he said.
“We had an sighting that would say about a month and a half ago, two types with shorts.”
The area is no stranger to tragedy. People They have died Make the cross or have to amputate your limbs after spending too much time in the relentless elements.
Dubois is visibly annoying talking about children that he and the other mounties have found.
“Human factors are the worst to deal with,” he said, being unusually silent.
As the afternoon and light begin to fade, some relief.
No one has been seen trying to cross today. There are no children in the cold. There are no dangerous bailouts. There are no hypothermia reports.
While the nights can make some of the most dangerous crosses, the return team at the station expects the brutal climate to prevent people from trying the trip, at least during the next few hours.
But Dubois is always reviewing its meteorological application, trying to anticipate when people will try to run for it. And verify the news to get a track of what could motivate an increase.
“The root of our works is to apply laws, knowing what is the next step, planning an operation in advance,” he said.
“At this moment we don’t know how things are going to go.”
