Imagine that you have been fishing for more than four decades on Lake Champlain, staying in Canada, but that a Sunday afternoon, the United States Coast Guard stops you. This is the adventure that Édouard L’Aléard experienced, near the Miller campsite, in Saint-Georges-de-Clarenceville, on July 20.
While he was convinced to fish on the Canadian side, Édouard the German was approached by the United States Coast Guard (USCG). “I was opposite the Miller campsite, I know that I was near, but since the age of 10, I have been fishing there. I know the border, “he said during a telephone interview with French Canada A little over a week after her adventure. “I still don’t recover events,” he adds.
Events
The 60 -year -old fisherman arrived on the water at 4:30 p.m., with the 16 -foot aluminum boat that belonged to a friend. He was equipped with all his equipment to enjoy a nice end of the day. As he came out a water from the water, he saw the American authorities in the distance. They got closer and asked him to cut his engine. He collaborated and he was told that he was fishing in American waters. Convinced that it was false, the German started his engine to go by the water and “speak to them as long as they want”.
“I know that you are in Canada and you are engaging me,” he said. The American boat would then have accosted him and tried to bring him to the United States. Mr. German’s boat would then have capsized. “He was drowning in the water and the coast guard was more focused on attaching his boat to theirs,” said his spouse, Darlene Fielding, in an email sent to the newspaper.
Then, the three coordinate guards got him on board and hit him, according to the victim. It had been about an hour that he had left the platform. “My boat was dragged upside down to the Vermont, the engine is all grazed. It’s a work for nothing because I didn’t do anything correct, ”he says.
Once on American soil, three border patrols brought him to a cell and his fingerprints were taken, as well as a portrait of him. Cut from the outside world and still not knowing if he was in a state of arrest, the German was able to make a call to his wife around 8:30 p.m. then it was informed that he was only held and that once his papers completed, it would be returned home. “But how am I going to go home?” Asked the Clarencevillois. He was then told that he would have transport to Canadian customs.
“I arrived at customs around 11pm. I had bruises, graphics, and I bleed everywhere, ”recalls the fisherman, who is still struggling to fold his left arm. He finished his misadventure at the Haut-Richelieu hospital, from where he finally came out around 3:20 am.
American version
The United States Coast Guard (USCG) has published a declaration in NBC5, a network of short stories south of the border. “While the 29-foot rescue of the coast guard was near the ship, the driver set the ship in motion and ignored the orders to keep the course and the speed for the approach. The ship then made a sudden starboard turn and struck the port forward of the coast guard’s rescue boat approximately 65 meters south of the Canadian-American border. The collision caused the capsuit of the ship, throwing the driver into the water, ”says the USCG.
“The crew of the coast guard’s boat quickly drafted the driver and towed the Canadian ship to the Sandy Point public water ramp. The emergency medical services intervened on the scene, then the subject was transferred to the custody of the American border patrol. The actions of the driver of the Canadian ship are currently under investigation, “said the USCG in his declaration.
Not to repeat
“The border patrols told me that they do not take anyone’s camp because they were not there,” emphasizes Edouard the German. It disappointed me, and leaving, I was told, “You know you are welcome in the United States”. What madman would return there? »»
By expressing his history, the German wish “that people know that even when you are at home, you are not”. He confirms that he will be much further north now, despite all the friends he has on the other side of the border. “Even there, they don’t come back!” He concludes.