OTTAWA | Canadian fishermen blame US border police for "illegal immigrants" for trying to board them off Nova Scotia while their ships are in Canadian waters, which Ottawa was looking for clear up Wednesday.

A nautical patrol of the "US Border Police tried to stop" a Canadian fishing vessel while in the Gulf of Maine, said on Facebook Laurence Cook, President of the Grand Manan Fishermen's Association .

This Canadian island is located on the east coast of North America, off the Gulf of Maine, between the US state of the same name and the Canadian provinces of New Brunswick and Nova Scotia.

The incident took place on June 24, exactly 20 kilometers further south, off Machias Seal Island, whose Canadian sovereignty is disputed by Washington, who is eyeing lobster-rich fishing grounds.

In response to US police orders, the Canadian trawler's boss "informed them that his Canadian vessel was fishing legally in Canadian waters," Cook said of the incident.

What US agents have "claimed to be looking for illegal immigrants," said the president of the local fishermen's association. "They were in (Canadian) sovereign waters, and they knew it," she insisted.

The Canadian Foreign Ministry told AFP on Wednesday that an investigation had been opened.

"Canada's sovereignty over Machias Seal Island and its surrounding waters is longstanding and is grounded in strong international law," said Canadian Foreign Affairs Critic John Babcock, saying that Ottawa was in the process of contact the US agencies involved in this incident.

At the instigation of President Donald Trump, the United States has a policy of "zero tolerance" against illegal immigration, which has led to the controversial separation of children and migrant parents apprehended at the border with Mexico.

But even in the north, particularly in New England, controls have been tightened near the border with Canada. The ACLU Civil Rights Association has told AFP that it has recently seen an increase in improvised checkpoints on highways leading to Canada by US border police.

The ACLU says these checks are against the law, and a judge in early May ruled in favor of the association for filtering done in the US state of New Hampshire last summer.

In concrete terms, statistics show that migrants are more interested in leaving the United States for Canada than vice versa.

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Posted from my blog with SteemPress : https://z22news.com/us-police-charged-with-entering-canadian-waters/

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