The Current - Live at the Haskell Free Library, right on the U.S. border

Episode Date: November 21, 2025

A black line on the floor marks the U.S.-Canada border that runs through the Haskell Free Library, and through the lives of the people who live in Stanstead, Quebec and Derby Line, Vermont.Matt Galloway hosts a live show in this unique venue, after months of simmering political tensions that have tested the enduring friendship of the two countries. We hear from bestselling author Louise Penny, musical guest Patrick Watson and local residents who live the reality of the border line, every day.

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This is a CBC podcast. Hello, I'm Matt Galloway, and this is the current podcast. As we made the drive through the snow-covered trees of Quebec's eastern townships yesterday, an hour and a half southeast of Montreal, it was like living in a Christmas card. You know, at the risk of creating a national incident, I don't know of a prettier place in Canada right now than the one we are in.

But it is where the highway ends that things get really interesting. Canada and the U.S. share the world's longest undefended border. And if you're looking for a place that captures that complex relationship, two countries joined at the history. hip, you would be hard-pressed to find somewhere better than here. Stansted, Quebec sits smack dab on the line with the United States.

There are families split on both sides. You cross the street, you're in another nation, and there is no place where that connection is more evident than the hall we are in now. The Haskell Free Library and Opera House is a marvel created more than 120 years ago as a symbol of that friendship. Gets its hydro from Canada, its heating oil from the U.S. The border literally runs through it defined by a faded line. of black tape. And in this theater tonight, the audience is on both sides of that divide. A few

guests even have their feet in Canada and their butt in the U.S. This relationship has been complicated by recent events, a Homeland Security Secretary who referred to the floor on the other side of that tape as the 51st state and an elbows-up response from Canada. And yet, and yet, we are neighbors. We need to figure out some way to make this work. And so that's why we came to the Haskell to hear how folks in this

community are doing just that. In a moment, the best-selling author, Pride of the Eastern Townships, Louise Penny, whose new novel has a pivotal scene set in this very hall. And we have got a soundtrack, courtesy of the brilliant Montreal songwriter Patrick Watson. He is

an artist whose music defies description. You know, if you talk to the people, yeah, give him a round of applause as well. If you talk to people in this town, as we have over the last few days, they will tell you it's always been two countries, one community, but they'll also tell you that things are different now. We are here to talk about what happens next. Live from the Haskell, Free Library and Opera House and Stansted, Quebec. My name's Matt Galloway, and this is the current. Will you listen to that, Canada? What a sound.

You know, we have people from all over the country who are here. People from Quebec, obviously, Vermont as well, from Toronto. I met somebody from P.E.I. Gannanacue. Vancouver. Cape Breton? You know, our first guest may have something to do with that. There aren't many authors.

So beloved, they inspire their own bus tours. Louise Penny is one of them. Her novels featuring Chief Inspector Armand Gamash paint a picture of the eastern townships that is so vivid and so welcoming you want to move right in. Those books have made her famous here in Canada and in the U.S. and around the world. And as time has gone by, Louise's novels have taken a bit of a darker turn. If you've read her latest, the Black Wolf, you would be forgiven for wondering if she has psychic powers. I am under the threat by some fans of hers of great punishment if I deliver spoilers.

So we won't do any of that. But I will tell you that this book was written well before Donald Trump was reelected, but imagines a plot to turn Canada into the 51st state. And as I say, part of that novel is set right here in this very theater. We are so, so pleased to have her with us. Please welcome, if you would, national treasure, Louise Penny. How are you? I'm really good.

I feel like I want to go out and come in again. Can I just keep doing that all night? This is wonderful. What a great aunt. And so attractive. You know how to win a crowd over. This place, I mean, it's a beautiful theater. What is this place, this room that we're in right now?

What does it mean to you? It means exactly what you were saying. It means unity. It means community. Where there is a border, but there is no border. It's bricks and mortar, but it's so much more than that. this is a heart and a soul. I mean, it's wonderful that it's art

that is bringing people together in that way, too. Yeah. It's a library and also a opera is in a theater. Who attacks a library? No, honestly. Because people may not know. It used to be that the access, at least to this very building, was different.

And now you have to change how you get in. You can't walk on the sidewalk if you're Canadian. You have to come in through a separate door. You gave $50,000 for a new door for the Canadian side that some of our Canadian guests may have come to. Thank you. You said... I do just want to say that the reason I could afford to do that

is because of your support, because financially I've been so fortunate over the course of a 20-year career. And so it just seemed natural, absolutely natural, to say thank you and give some of... Not all of it, give some of it back. You also said, creating the new door, these are your words, it's like giving the finger to the current administration. You close one door, we'll open another.

And how symbolic are doors? Doors. They closed a door. And how elegant is the solution on the Canadian side to totally supported by the American part of the organization here to just say, well, that's all right. We'll just open our own. And that's what happened. You're good friends with Hilary Rodham Clinton. You wrote a book with her. Yes, yes. Have you had any conversations with her about what's going on right now? A few. Would you care to share the tenor and the tone of those conversations? I mean, what she loves, first of all, I do want to say she loves the Eastern Township.

She loves coming up. She was here this past summer, and she said that it's the first time since the inauguration that she's felt safe. and I've never heard her say that before I think she's afraid for the first time physically but she is certainly afraid for the American democracy in the American Republic as I mentioned there's a scene in the book that takes place here and we can't give anything too much away

what I will say is that Armand comes here he has to meet someone an American but he can't cross the border and he's thinking how is that going to happen and then he remembers of course the Haskell but the conceit is that he's coming here to see a show. So I decided the Haskell Opera House would be putting on Billy Bishop Goes to War.

These are the things you can do. Use your imagination. Because I am God. In your books, yes. You started this book before Trump was re-elected, right? I started this book because it's two halves of a whole, starting with the gray wolf, and then the black wolf is the second half of it.

In fact, it was designed three years ago. And so how do you, at that point, start thinking about 51st state, long before those words have come out of the current president's mouth? You worried, you said to me that you'd worried that you'd gone too far. Now you worry whether you didn't go far enough. Yeah, it was a bit of a shock to hear Trump talk about the 51st state. It just, if you read the book, you'll see that it just seems, I hope, like a natural progression. And then when it actually happened in the real world, obviously as a Canadian, I was appalled.

And unsure how seriously to take it, I think we're still trying to parse that. The other part was obviously thinking more personally, if this is in my book, are people going to think that I've simply ripped it from the headlines and ripped it off and taken advantage of what is a very shattering experience? How seriously should we take it, do you think? That is a really interesting question. I think it would be foolish to underestimate what he's capable of. I think that there is not a country that's been invaded,

the peoples who have been targeted or an individual who's been rounded up, who hasn't looked back and thought, what did I miss? Where was the moment when it could have been stopped? And I think we're living through that moment right now. And I think it behooves all of us. Certainly behooves me because I am 67, I am 20, 20 years into a career that is so overshot any of my expectations.

If I don't stand up, and I am in a position where I can, then shame on me. I think it's time that we stood up, those of us who can. Can I ask you about that career that you say has overshot all reasonable expectations? You left the best job there is. You were a CBC radio journalist. Oh, does anyone here remember me from radio news? The one o'clock time signal at the sound of the long dash.

Beginning of the long dash. Yeah, it was a great career. I mean, part of it is about a gamble. Like, you think you can do this? You wonder what's going to happen? You know, to go back seriously to the career, do what you do. You do it because you are brilliant,

but you also listen. You listen closely. And that was a great gift for me to be able to listen for 15 years to people who were something extraordinary. It happened in their lives. They don't end up on the show without something wonderful or bad happening. So you get to see people in extremists.

And as a writer, that is extremely helpful. And you get to hear how people talk and express themselves. So it was really great. But I eventually, after the Quebec referendum, I just, and it was so close, and everybody was shattered. Nobody felt like they had won. I had had had crossed a line. And so I quit with Michael's, my husband's support. and wrote. And it was something I'd wanted to do since the age of eight and put off for fear of

failure. Fear has been such a tyranny in my life. And I finally really had to say now or never. And then I ended up realizing that what I needed to do was not write for my mother's approval, for my professor's approval. Just write a book I would read. And if it's never published, if it's not any good, it doesn't matter. The contract with my eight-year-old self is that it be written. Good for you. Good for us.

I said at the beginning about the bus tours, you've created this world. We went yesterday to your cafe, Cafe Three Pines in Nolton, which is built out of your imagination. We go in, and Louise is there with her dogs, Muggins and Charlie, and there are people who have arrived to say hello,

and they want to talk to you. And you're very generous. Why is that space so important to you? You just seem so happy and at home there. I create, much like writing the books, I created the bistro, the Café Three Pines, which is meant to be a reflection of the bistro from the books. I was able to buy the building that the bookstore is in because I didn't want someone to buy it and maybe move the bookstore or evict them.

and then I realized that the basement was empty and I thought all these great bookstores that I get to go in when I'm on tour many of them have cafes attached so I thought we'll attach a cafe it's one of those things that sounds good right until you start but it has become more than the sum of its parts

it's become a safe place I hope for people where diversity equality and inclusion are important where goodness exists Can I ask you just finally about that, about a place where decency and goodness exist? Is it hard to find that now? There's a lot of bad news. And yet, you know, there's joy that's around you.

It is joy. You really focus on that. Is it hard for you to find? Because it's so easy to stand in the shadows, because you can hide in the shadows. What you want to do is stand in the light and look at the positive. It takes so much more courage and character

to be kind than it does to be cruel and cynical. And at our core, we are all decent and we all want to be decent and we all want to be kind. That is Louise Penny. Her new book is called The Black Wolf. Will you stay here with us?

I want to talk a little bit more. You're not getting rid of me. About the border. We have, she's going to hang around. We have some amazing music. I mentioned we have a wonderful guest who's going to perform. There's a grand piano that's right here with a bunch of equipment that's all around it as well. He was born in California. He grew up just outside of Montreal. He is known around the world for his beautiful music. I have wanted to have him perform live on a radio

program that I have been hosting for a long time. And I can't quite believe that he's here to do that for us this evening. His new album is called Uh-oh. He's just back from a tour of Europe. Please welcome, if you would, to the stage of the Haskell Opera House, Patrick Watson. Thank you for being here. Such a pleasure. Before you play something, tell us about the record. Uh-oh. That's kind of a phrase that people use. They turn on the radio, they open the newspaper, and it's uh-oh.

Listen, since COVID, it just seems like every morning is always uh-oh. And I was like, I didn't know what else to call the record. And the other thing I thought a lot about was a lot of times when you look historically speaking, transitional periods or difficult periods, the sad clown becomes a really prominent character. in the arts and theater. So as I was writing the lyrics of the record, I kind of wanted to take the idea of being the sad clown,

like the Charlie Chapman of the 20, you know, in a way to make it ridiculize yourself in order for all the ridiculous uh-ohs out there and to try to find some sense inside that ways. What is it that music can do when the news is terrible? Is there something that music can give you to kind of take you out of that world? I feel like if I get on stage,

for one hour and a half we will be together and time will stop. You know, and that is my job just to make time stop. You have some people on stage with you tonight. Who's going to help you stop time? Well, the first time she'd be singing with us for the first time, Shane has come to sing with us tonight, and she's an incredible singing. Also, the lovely Mishka, it's been more than 25 years. We've been playing music together.

He's amazing. Yeah, we're going to cause some trouble. I don't know. Try to make a world stop. And what are you going to play first? We're going to play House on Fire. It's a song that I had written with Martha Wayne wrote originally, and this song was a funny thing

because I first came up the song from my perspective was like sometimes there's two truths and that at what point do you need your truth to be right if the whole house burns down and then I invite Martha over and Martha's like a fireball she's like I'm not into your little two-truths thing

because she had a totally different experience and anyway so when you hear the different parts singing it's not the same song or the same perspective it's two different perspectives that are kind of like coexisting in one song called House on Fire Fantastic. Here we go.

Here we go. You ready? Oh, we're going to do it. No, I'm sorry. I keep trying to see your side Even though I just want to We are worlds We are stones It's worth and still we are thrown

Where did all our love go How'd your eyes get so? You can wrap your truth limited balls but I just don't know how to be long so I'm a man made out of holes

tell me something I'm running wrong oh oh oh I'll be wrong you'd be right

out of my life he's going to be right The chairs can fly The kids could cry So why not the house On fire Our house is a very fine house

And you got harsh when you got You can take your hands And cover your ears Scream so loud that the nerves can leave And I don't want to do this something right oh I'm wrong

I don't mind I just want to make it right I was yours you remind that we're so much on the line and I keep trying to see a sign side, even though I just wore my heart. It was wrong.

Drink the rain and bent to the sun when we were young. Now we're counting down to when we can. Take the pictures of the wall The portraits in the hall When he walked out of the door I love you when you hear those voices call Can he hear those voices call? Can he hear his voices call?

His breath is God For I love to break the fall For I love to break the fall For I love to break the fall Oh Oh Oh I'll be wrong

You'd be right I don't mind I can't Oh Oh I love to break the fold I'm I'm so much of mine

I'm so much of mine And I can't chase inside I'm even though I just I'm I can see through all the years. I can't see through all the tears.

I can't see through all the years. I can't carry the way to follow us. I can't carry all these lives. I can't care. I can't care. I can't care. I can't see through all the tears I can't see through all these lives

I can't carry all of these lives I can't see through all the years I can carry all these lives I can carry all these lives I can see through all the tears I can see through all the years I can carry the weight of our lives I can carry all of his life.

Live on stage at the Haskell Opera House, Patrick Watson, Shana Hayes and Mishka Stein. That is a tune called House on Fire. Your CBC News is coming up next. And then when we come back, a conversation with Patrick Watson and Louise Penny. We'll also bring you the view from the other side of the border, Vermont's Secretary of Agriculture is here.

And you'll get to meet some of the people who make this community so special. My name's Matt Galloway. This is a special edition of The Current. We're in Stansted, Quebec at the Haskell Opera House. We'll be back after the news. Stay with us. Hello, I'm Matt Galloway.

This is a special edition of the Current. We are in Stansted, Quebec, live from the Haskell Opera House. A rowdy crowd split between Canada and the United States. With me on stage, Polaris Prize winning a musician Patrick Watson and best-selling author, Louise Penny. The last time you and I spoke, Louise, you had decided to cancel your book tour in the United States

because of this 51st state business. You're not going down to the United States. You said it was a moral wound and the decision to not go to the U.S. was immediate. Are you still holding to that? Yes, yeah, absolutely. Why is it so important for you to hold the line on that? Yeah, that's an interesting question.

I wish I could articulate it. It's just instinctive that this is a country that has declared war on us, and while lives perhaps have not been lost, although that might be debatable. Livelyhood certainly have. And I'm not going to go and support a regime that has done that. And I've tried in my social media and in my mind and in my heart to separate the administration from the people.

And that's... I had a book contract with Russia. And when they came to renew it, I said, no, I'm not going to renew the book contract with Russia, not until they get out of Ukraine. How are you thinking about this, Patrick? You recorded part of this record in New Orleans, in Los Angeles as well,

and you're headed on tour. As an artist, how do you think about this stuff? Well, I guess I've been traveling since I was 16 on tour, right? So it's like 26, 30 years of tour. And so I guess when I travel, I don't really think about countries or cities or places anymore. I just remember it becomes like, my job is not to be about borders.

My job is entirely the opposite, where people forget borders, you know? So my reflection on that always is that if you, when you cut the arts or you start to cut the phone ties, I often worry that that maybe make the situation worse because if they're faced as seeing a Canadian in front of them, they're going to have to have the conversation very differently when they watch news because they're like, oh, last night I just had a Canadian in front of me and maybe I don't want to go and made their country because it's seemed pretty chill. So I always, you know, like I don't dabble into.

the politics too much. Musicians are very hot-headed. When we speak about things, it always comes out too hot-headed. I have many opinions about things, but I try to stay away unless I can have a real long, nuanced conversation about it. But I think when you're a writer, you have a very different job. Your job is to really have a nuanced, interesting, political conversations, and you're investigating and be critical thinkers.

Musicians are like, we put our heart in the sleeves and we explode a bit, you know. But you're so elegant, and you're such a good communicator. with words, it's much different than when someone, so when you speak, I'm like, oh, God, it's like so nice to hear someone love a headache. Anyway, I'll say. Do you know what I was thinking, though, when you were talking, is that I think, much like in the environmental movement, for anything to really grab hold and make progress, you have to work on different levels from different angles. So some of us stand back and say, we're not going to go. Some brave people go and make the statement by being there. And I think that

that's really important as well. It's a combination, yeah. I think you may have very different jobs, like, in that way, you know, and I really respect authors about what their role is in society. I think it's much more than just writing books, you know. Like, I think they're critical thinkers of the world. So I think it's really interesting or different when you approach that subject than when I approach it because my job is to go there and make people feel something,

you know what I mean? And I'm supposed to inspire imagination, inspire, like, you know, I play a song, and you're like, oh, God, remember when I buried my, you know, and then they start crossing. That's a very different job, you know. But also, your point was so great about that you're a Canadian, you're standing in front of them. It's very hard to hate a friend. And that's what you're doing, is you are helping people come to that realization that Canadians aren't.

The people who may have never met a Canadian are coming to see your shows and realizing that's what a Canadian is. Yeah, and it'd be very tricky the next day when they see Fox News and we're like, we're invading Canada. I saw that Canadian. She's got very weird hair. I don't think he's a drug dealer Can I ask you before I let you go Don't let her go? She's in my band now

You're not letting her go anywhere We would have her here all night You said This cannot be undone This profound friendship between these two nations Cannot be undone So where do we go from here? That's kind of the question

You know what we do? What we do is we is we find common ground. There's so much that we share. There's more that we share than that separates us. And it takes a force of will to find that because it's so easy to find fault. And I think what we have to do is try to find that common ground.

At the same time, I'm so proud that Canada has stood up for itself and said this far and no further. We'll talk more about this, Patrick. a little bit later on. But in the meantime, Louise... She's going to be... I don't know what instrument she's going to play,

but we're going to get an instrument in her hands. I'm not playing unless she's here. She's going to join her back. Louise Penny, everybody. I'm going to grouping. And we're going to hear more from Patrick Watson in a little bit. Thank you both. You're listening to a special edition of the current.

We are in Stansted, Quebec, at the Haskell. an opera house, a library and a building that is an institution that is right on the border between Canada and the United States. And as promised, we're going to get a view from the other side of that border. My next guest has been described as a quintessential Vermonter,

grew up on a farm, raised cows and sheep, made maple sugar, built a successful career in journalism, reporting for TV, radio, managing newsrooms. But since 2016, he has been Vermont's Secretary of Agriculture. He still has one toe. in the broadcasting world. He hosts a weekly show

on Vermont radio called For the Birds. Please welcome Anson Tevitz. Thank you. Just to confirm the show is about birds, right? It is about birds.

Since 1994, we've done this show. It's the only job I've been able to hold. So it is just a break from everything in the world for about 10 minutes, weekend. Okay, we'll come back to the birds in the way. All right.

How would you describe the relationship between, in this community and between the two sides of this community? I think this community, it's okay. I think we acknowledge in Vermont that it's really difficult from, my butt is in Stansted, right? Yeah, yeah. Okay, earlier it was in Vermont, but right now it's in Stansted. But I think we understand what has gone on over the last.

last year and we're doing all we can in Vermont to be better neighbors and recently we were in with the governor governor Scott and the team we were in Newfoundland with the eastern premiers and the New England governors and there's some difficult conversations you know occur at that we we understand what has happened and we're doing everything we can in Vermont to be civil kind and keep that relationship going One of the things that's been happening is we know that there has been increased border enforcement. You see that here, but you see that, for example, in agricultural settings, on farms. We know migrant workers have been arrested.

Farms have been raided. What sort of impact is that having in Vermont? It's a profound impact on the agriculture community, not only on Vermont, but the entire country of the United States relies on foreign labor. And so what does that meant? I mean, when that workforce is terrified? They're terrified. Many of them may not be going into town as much. They may not be getting health care as much. They may not be leaving the farm as much. They're staying close to home. It has a dramatic, just a dramatic impact. And it's really challenging for all involved in, you know, we're thinking about them all the time. The current governor who appointed you is a Republican. That's correct. Yep. And there are a lot of counties in this area that voted for Trump. How do you understand, what they were looking for in that vote?

Well, I think, you know, our approach and the governor's approach is, you know, he often says he's kind of like the umpire, so he has to make decisions on, you know, maybe something comes out of Washington he doesn't agree on. He's got to make a decision whether we're going to go along with that or not go along with that. And he's always been very calm because we can't live in sort of this chaotic atmosphere every single hour. You know, we're a population

of 660,000 people. We know everybody. I mean, we do. They know the governor. They know his character. They know what he's about. You know, we know Bernie Sanders. We know Senator Welch. So I think we are just independent souls.

And we examine their policies and their character. And if they're going to work and if they're going to, you know, play by the rules and be fair. And if they're not, then we get rid of them the response from a lot of Canadians to what's going on in your country is elbows up we're not going

we aren't buying your stuff we're looking in the grocery store for the can that's got a maple leaf on it what sort of impact has that had do you think there's so many things that connect us you know for example we have a cheese company in Vermont you guys make great cheese so can go back in it up this way too by the way. I think you won the number one in American Cheese Society, if I'm correct.

And we were right there. Vermont was right there at Bester Show too. So we do all right between the two countries. But, you know, for example, we rely on some of your goat's milk to make cheese in Vermont in Ontario, Quebec. Your milk are not goats. The milk's coming across the border. We're making it into cheese. We rely on some of your grain. Of course, Vermont relies heavily on power from Quebec and hydro Quebec. And it goes the other way. Some of our logs go north from our timber. And we've seen a dramatic decline in visitors. And as a state, we're doing all we can to try to repair that. And I don't think it's a fancy ad campaign either. I think it's maybe events like this. It's one-on-one, like, hey, we're still here. This is Vermont.

And we value what you bring to us. Do you understand why people would say we're not going? Absolutely. We've heard that loud and clear that until something changes, and I don't know if that's, you know, apology or whatever, but it's like, no, we're not coming until things have a different attitude. How do we move forward in that? I mean, how do you repair the damage? Well, first of all, you'll be civil. We can have disagreements. Even saying that sounds dramatic in some ways. We can be civil. I just think it's just going to take individual to individual time over time and just try to repair it because Canada, you're friends, right? Yeah, yeah. Right?

I mean, that's always have been. And I think from the Vermont perspective, you are our friends, you know, so. You wanted to talk about birds. Well, I thought I came here to talk about birds. That's why I thought I came up all this way. So are you familiar with the big, the big, thing that's going to happen with Canada and all the birds coming to the United States this year hear about this?

Are you familiar with the Fern, F-I-R-N, the Finch Research Network out of Canada? Tell me about this. Well, these are researchers, and this is going to be a big year for the United States, because the crops up in Canada in the wild, they're not so great that these finches, like we're talking pints of skins, evening gross pigs, they're not common. The food isn't up there, so they're going to have to come to the United States, and apparently we have a good food crop. So a lot of birds are going to be migrating south.

And this doesn't happen for a long time. They're trying to figure out this relationship. If you want to break from what's going on in the world, I suggest taking out bird watching. Anson Tebitts, thank you very much. Real pleasure to have you here. Thank you. Anson Tevitz is Vermont's Secretary of Agriculture.

This library straddles two countries, but also two municipalities. Stansted, Quebec, and Derby Line, Vermont share more than a border. And to help us understand we've been talking about this, just how closely they are intertwined. I'm joined by two local leaders. Jody Stone is the mayor of Stansted and Sarah Webster as chair of the Board of Trustees of Derby Line.

Welcome to the stage of the Haskell operas. Jody, tell me about this relationship. We've been talking about it. There are border communities across this long border. How is this one different? Well, I think it's our proximity. If you look at an aerial map, you'll see that our two communities are completely blended together. We've grown up together in a sense that we would cross the street before the borders were super strict,

and we could go to each other's house. I had relatives on both sides. So it's that community that we've grown to know and love, you know. Sarah, do you want to pick up on that? You were nodding. Just paint us a picture of how intertwined the parts of this community. community are. Yeah, we are quite literally intertwined. Our water and Derby Line comes from Stansted and then we use it and when we're done with it, we send it back. As it gets inspected going through.

You mentioned growing up here. What was the border like when you were growing up? My aunt lived on the Vermont side. So literally she would cross the street to go to work. We'd get on a bus on the Vermont side, just in front of the border customs to go to swimming lessons on the Vermont side. And we didn't cross the border. We would simply wave and say, hi, we want to get through. And then they would come back and they would be the same place. It's a different time now. How do you feel, Sarah, about the changes in border enforcement? It's a big pause before you answered that question. Yeah, there is a pause. It's complicated. I think that, and I'm speaking a bit out of turn, you know, for Derby Line,

it's a way of life for people to cross, and it's been very challenging. What about as an American? I mean, do you support, when the border is more enforced, when it's not just a wave, but it's much more than that, and I mean, even coming in here, you stay on the sidewalk. You don't step off that sidewalk because there are signs that say do not cross. Is that a good thing, do you think, to tighten that up? Yeah, I do. I do think that we could use some tighter borders, but it is challenging when it's so different than what we are used to. Why is that necessary, do you think? From a safety perspective. Derbyline is a family community. I have small children, many other people have small children, and I just want them to be safe.

And just to tag on a little bit of what Sarah said, border security isn't the same across the whole country, right? So here in Stansett, it might be. be very safe. It might not be so in other areas. So I think that's why it's tough. They're trying to make security the same across the border. And unfortunately, we're paying the price for that here. What do you make, Sarah, of the elbows up movement and people boycotting the United States, people not traveling to the United States? We are definitely seeing it in our community. I'm glad that Canada's standing up for themselves. I think you should, and I applaud you for doing so. Yeah. What about you, Jody?

Do you understand the impetus behind the elbows up movement? Absolutely. It just showcases what Canada is, and we're going to remain a sovereign nation. Province of Quebec is very unique. We have our French language that we need to protect as well. So, yeah, I understand, but it's still not going to change how our communities

are going to grow and continue to grow. And we've taken this opportunity to get closer. As one community, two nations, I feel that we set the precedent for our nations to sit down and finally deal with the problems that we need to deal with, so we can move forward. And you're really confident that that won't change the community?

Absolutely, because the American people are coming to Quebec, and often they're apologizing for things that are happening down south. Quebecers, Canadians, see this, hear this. I'm hearing this from mayors across the country. Everybody wants this to be over with. We all want to go back to some kind of normalcy. It'll never be the same. Yeah. Thank you both for being here. Thank you. Thank you. Sarah Webster is chair of the board of the trustees of Derby Line, Vermont, Jody Stone, the mayor of Stansted, Quebec. Please welcome back to the stage of the Haskell

Opera House, Patrick Watson. Can I ask you about what happened with one of your songs last year? This is a song. I was, this afternoon, as one does, on social media, there's a video of Jane Goodall talking about how her favorite animal is a dog, not a chimpanzee, but a dog. And in the background of this video, is your music. And you know what song it is.

Yeah, I do. Gillesere de Mont. Tell me about this song. Well, it's an unusual story. I mean, listen, it was during, COVID and I was doing a lot of like Instagram live concerts when I got back from tour because we're in the middle of the tour they all got canceled so I went home and I'd be singing a lot on Instagram live for like a thousand people or 400 people a night and then one of those times someone sent me a video

of this video with that song I looked under and I was like oh it's got a million views that's a bit crazy you know and then I didn't really pay attention and this song just kind of grew exponentially over everything you know and then every time so like yeah like my kid fell off the stairs my song and it's a garbage truck it's my song and then there's literally videos like like, hey, what's the ugliest video you can make pretty with this song? And then there'll be a competition like that. And always my most fondest memories, this song is, so many people do covers. Like, I get, every day, like, some kid will send me a cover. Like, some 12-year-old, somewhere, like, could be Brazil, France, around the world. And I get like five or six videos

going, oh, watch me sing your song for you. And, I mean, there's hundreds of thousands of those videos of people sing it. So I get a lot of pleasure out of that element of it. But it's just a song that filled a hole during COVID, I think, that kind of, like, stuck around. became part of people's lives in an interesting way. This is the first French language song to hit a billion, with a B, billion streams on Spotify. It's a crazy number.

The internet's so weird, these large numbers, because, I mean, it's a billion on Spotify, but the overall, I think it's 80 billion on TikTok and all of them, right? So it's 80 billion. Like, it's such an ginormous number of, like, nonsensical. You can't fathom that number. And I'm very proud of, you know, I grew up as an anglophone in Quebec.

I speak French. I went to French school. So it's pretty funny. I mean, the Angophone in Quebec, who crossed that line. There's a little bit of irony I enjoy out of that. I'm not going to lie. No, lots of love. The French speakers in the Quebec culture as a kid, a lot of my earliest friends were French.

All my friends I'd made music with when I was my early tournaments were French. All my first tours were in the north of Quebec. That culture has paid the way. for me to be able to have my career so they're like very important to me so at the same time I'm very honored to be a part of that culture and to do the best I can to celebrate it you know what I mean but you know it's crazy world wonderful will you play the song for us absolutely let's do it fantastic live on the stage at the Haskell here's Patrick Watson We're out of the mule

who chants all right of the place where your feet sepaces in the troughs in the troughs and when you are so by the menace remorse

me time someone when do my someone when if

were um um to Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, ah. There are There are There are

Of your door There Ones The Music That All right

To the place Pass Because in the Trout Dress And

When you When you Sair Remorse me When you would Brass me When you would

remasse me When you Fond Woudre Woudre Oh, oh. Oh. That is why that is why that song has gone all over the world.

Patrick Watson, he will be back with more music to close out our program. We're going to take a quick break for your regional update and then when we come back, did you know, did you know that the Beatles once planned to have a secret meeting here at the Haskell Library? Could it possibly be true? We will try to separate fact from fantasy coming up in 90 seconds. My name is Matt Galloway in Stan State, Quebec. This is a special edition of the current. Stick around. Hi, I'm My Figures. I'm my figures. I'm wrote and directed movies like leaving Las Vegas and time code. And recently I was on the set of Francis Ford Coppola's infamous passion project, Megalopolis, making a fly-on-the-wall documentary.

In Unfiltered, the Mike Figures Podcasts, I'll share stories of watching a mad genius at work. Get Unfiltered, the Mike Figures podcast, wherever you get podcasts. Hello again. My name is Matt Galloway. This is a special edition of the current. We are a packed house. We are in Stansted, Quebec, at the Haskell Free Library and Opera House. And with me, on stage,

two people with a very special connection to this place. Kim Prangley practically grew up here. Her mother, Adelaide, was the Haskell's librarian from 1971 through 1982. Then Kim took over until 2005. She knows this place inside and out. Also with me is Ross Murray, writer, playwright, president of the Canadian fundraising arm of the Haskell Foundation. You probably saw him usering you in.

Thank you both for being here with us. You have Ross described the Haskell as, in your words, a magical loophole that existed on the border. What do you love about this place? I came here 30 plus years ago, and the border exists in a way that I, I wasn't aware of. And I remember crossing the border early on in my arrival here and thinking, wow, this is very cool to be this close to another country and stepping over and going, you know, these people are a little different in Vermont. They're a little more robust and ready to have a good time. And when I came into the library, it's like, oh, we're in

both countries and those differences immediately disappeared. I mean, when I came into the library came yesterday, one of the things I saw was, there's the line. I mean, I'd seen pictures of that's the line. I'd heard about the line. There it is. It's right there. And you step across it. Does anything change? Maybe. I'm not sure. Tell me about, I mean, your mom and the line and how this happened. So for many, many, many years, this building was insured with two companies, a Canadian company ensuring the Canadian portion and an American company insuring the American side. And in the mid-sum, 70s, there was a small fire that took place outside under the overhang, which has since

disappeared. And it was very close to where they knew the border was. And so they didn't know which insurance company would have to cough up the money. And so my mom said, well, what if we paint the line on the floor? And then we'll know exactly where everything is. And so that's what they did. And, you know, from that moment on, I think virtually every person that's come into the library ever since. We'll straddle the border and have their picture taken. I actually purchased the two little flags that people always put on the line now, the Canadian and the American one, and then they have their picture taken again. So it's certainly been an attraction for people to have that borderline, but it's also created other very interesting circumstances as well.

So one of those interesting circumstances perhaps involves one of the people who came and straddled that line. Kirstie Knoem, who is... Now, now, the U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security, she stood on one side and said USA number one, then stepped to the other and said 51st state. You said you were horrified and sickened by what happened. I literally almost grew up in the building.

It's like home to me. I mean, I started coming here when I was three. And I remember the librarian at the time who looked rather like the moose downstairs on the wall. And she used to have peach blossom candies behind the door, and she would always give me one. So I had very pleasant memories of the library, and that's just continued throughout my life. It's a very special place to me. And that's abhorrent to think that she would jump over the border and say those things, very insensitive. And the library, though, and the whole institution has been sort of in a delicate balance for a question.

a long time though it's not just from from this recent development it's a challenge i have to tell you there's no job like it in the world you are you know you have to know something about architecture and the historical value of the building and you have to work with two companies doing the same job you have american uh electrical standards that are different than the canadian and when we had some renovations done here the americans had to put the wiring in up to this point and the Canadians had to attach it. So it's a very fine line that you tread here when you are running an institution that's in two countries at the same time. I can imagine. Yeah, 25 years was quite enough. Ross, we were talking to Louise Penny earlier. A scene in her new book

is set here in this library. You have written plays that have been set here as well, including one about the Beatles. And this planned reunion, tell me this story. It's a story as we say if it's true, but even if it's not true, it's a good story. I heard the story about how the Beatles almost came to the Haskell for as long as I've lived here. And I always found that a very strange thing that the most famous thing that happened at the Haskell is something that didn't actually happen. But if you look online, Haskell Beatles, there's all kinds of versions of this story. And the idea is that one beetle or another couldn't come into the Canada, or couldn't go into the United States,

so they decided to have used this magical loophole to meet. So I decided at one point that I wanted to write a play for the community, about the community. And this was a natural story. And a nice thing about a myth is that it's both true and untrue. So you can take it as a jumping off point and then go wild with it. There's no evidence except that there's some interviews

with Adelaide Prangley, Kim's mom, who says, yes, an agent approached me, and it was all set to happen, but then word got out or there's various reasons. So I don't think Kim's mom would lie. I don't think so either. So whether there's smoke, there's fire, right?

Your mom is a character in Ross's play, right? Well, my mother was the librarian here. They spoke to her. I remember her coming home and telling us at the supper table that they had contacted her. Can you read a little bit of her monologue? And I'll explain why,

but just to read a little bit of her monologue from the play. Can't you just picture it? Four geniuses who changed the face of music and shaped a generation drawn to this humble library to talk about a new future together. And why? Why were they drawn here? Well, because this little library in opera house is part of the dream. It's a dream that Mrs. Haskell had when she built this institution for our joint communities, the same one John Lennon had when he sang, imagine there's no countries. Here, We are just people joined together by a love of community and books. Books that also confound borders that take us anywhere,

connecting the past and the future, even when the world is changing all around us, so fast we can barely keep up with it, and we can't make sense of it all. But the library is there, and whatever happens in 10, 20, 30 years, it will be here. And this library, more than any other, cries out to the world.

Let it be. Let it be. And that is why we are here, officer, to give peace a chance. All you need is books. That's why I wanted you to read it. All you need is books, Ross. Do you believe that? Can this place survive what's happening right now?

It's gone through a lot in the last year. And at first, I was horrified by it, the effort to, essentially, shut this place down or keep people out of it or make it difficult for people to come here and what happened as a result ironically is that it got more attention it raised so much money from people who said no this is wrong and and god bless louise penny for supporting us and getting the word out about it and and i'm looking out tonight and seeing all these people here tonight walking through like a battle zone to get in here because we're determined to keep the place open.

Thank you both for being here. Kim Prangley was a librarian here at the Haskell for nearly 25 years, Ross Murray, writer, playwright, and president of the Canadian fundraising arm of the Haskell Foundation. One of the things about going out on the road that I love is that we get to have these conversations on stage, but we also get to meet people in the communities

where we do these programs from. And we have a little bit of time to hear from some of the members of our audience here at the Haskell. First, we have Chris Planetta, who is an actor with the borderline players. Chris, tell us a little bit about your life on the border and what you want us to know about what makes this place special.

I agree with Patrick earlier when he was saying how the arts bring people together. And I think that that was our goal from taking over from the previous theater company and making sure the community theater still is thriving here at the Haskell. What do you make of the fact that there are people who don't want to cross this border? Sure. I understand their frustration, but I also believe in bringing people together,

and I also think that the last thing that the administration wants is for people to be bonded together and visiting together and enjoying the arts together. So I also feel that responsibility is there as well. Chris, thank you very much. Next, we have Nicole Bratton. She's with the Vermont Preservation Trust, President of the board of the Unitarian Universalist Church in Derby Line. Nicole, tell us a little bit about, we talk about this thickening of the border or a tightening up of the border.

What has that meant for you and how has that changed things on your side of the line? For First Universalist Parish, we used to have a lot of people from the Canadian side coming over. They were members of our congregation. Those numbers have dwindled. We also have a really strong partnership with the North Hatley UU.

And we have this wonderful speaker who comes and the North Hatley people come down and we have food, and it's really fun. But this year, they told us that they wouldn't be coming. And so we lost that time to be together. So that's definitely a different change for us. Do you understand where that sentiment comes from? I do.

I do. And it makes me really sad to think that there are these tensions that arise. And as you've heard here tonight, it's those connections between people that I think are the strongest things that are going to help us get where we need to go. How do you think we get out of it? I go to Canada all the time.

I love it. My girls play hockey in Stansted. We go over to Sunshine Bakery. We go up to Montreal frequently. I think the more support that we can be throwing to the other side at this time while there's that hesitation from Canada coming down is a great way to keep those friendships going.

Nicole, thank you very much. We have time for some more music. Please welcome back to the stage of the Haskell Opera House. He's been our musical guest all evening. Patrick Watson. Oh I could hear that base two blocks away blowing through the sound

and it got dark in the strangest way Slowly, slowly came this way. Like night time was their trees. Some about the way the metal slays, you can move, creek, you can leave. Oh, sometimes in the woods again. Oh, and it feels wicked, but it feels good. I see what I see too proud of...

Shabbating in the light. Shabbated to see the shimmering back on me. I see the shimmer in light, shaking on. And as far as see it goes, girls, dancing in the headlights at the same time at the baseline, the night I'm going on the baseline road. Got six teeth of windows, pearly white teeth. I can do it well, and be there is me. She lives in a leg of emerald green.

She's strangely spoken French to me. From the world house to the crows Every, every, everybody knows She's the queen of everything I'm going to eat of everything To eat your car, I'll eat your horse, I'm going to life, I'm going to my Ah!

16th the windows 16th the window Are you watching You know, I'm going to be able to. To be able to escape From the river There's wicked that it is good From the rhythms

To the crow 60 million dollars go you buy tears you know i can see the road you'll be the rich man Patrick Watson, Peter and the Wolf. It's fantastic. It's fun that one. You look like a mad scientist. Part-time job. Working yourself up more and more and more.

Well, you know, it's Peter and the Wolf. Got to get into it, right? Tell me, this is a record that features you in collaboration with a lot of different vocalists. Yes, that's correct. And part of this comes from, and we just heard, your voice used an extraordinary ability, concerns that you had about your own voice. I mean, you sing about this in a record, you lost your voice. Oh, I literally, like, paralyzed my voice.

We were, like, I think we were, like, in Atlanta, and we were doing a show singing this, Here Comes River Song. And I was like, oh, and I'm like, oh, okay, that's a feeling. And then, yeah, we woke up in the morning, and me and Mishke, my old buddy, we had to go to E&T in Philadelphia, and then she stuck a camera down my throat. He has a video, and then she's like, you're not singing for a long time.

I had hemorrhaged the cord out and I couldn't talk for three months. When she said that, you can imagine your blood going cold. Like, what goes through your mind? Well, the first thing goes through your mind is you're like on tour with like 14 people in Philadelphia and now you have to go to the bus and say we're going home and then you have to look at it and it's like heart-wrenching,

you know, the shows you have to cancel and the complication of being in the middle of a tour and your voice is paralyzed. They didn't know my voice was going to come back, to be honest. Because it's a hemorrhage, it's like a very thin piece of skin. you don't know how it's going to heal. So, I mean, I kind of made peace a bit of my head

that maybe I won't sing again, you know, and I had to make peace with that idea. But also, I didn't talk for three months. I have, like, kids. I don't have, like, a robot voice in my phone being like, clean your room. I will murder you. And then the other thing that was quite lovely

was that, like, I often thought about this experience I had, like, this, do you know, Vim Vendors? Yeah. So, whatever you work with Vim Vendors, and you go for a chap with him, he goes quiet for like 15 minutes before he says anything and it's I can't do it I'm like I'm going to be quiet I'm not going to say nothing this time and every time I'm going to say something and I'm like you don't want to because you want to hear

what he has to say because he's a lot more interesting than you are and I never could like so the whole time I was like can't I run into Vim vendors now and then the funny thing would be like or the other thing that you realize is like often you think like you're at a dinner table I got a fancy fact you're going to pull out of your pocket some statistic and every, he's like, you're like, oh, oh, they care, I swear. Nobody cares. Nobody misses it. Nobody missed my statistics. Let me tell you. And then, in fact, the dumb part is, you walk away and they're like, oh, he's pretty smart that guy, because you didn't say anything. You're like, huh?

And then I go to the bank. I go to the bank. I'm like, hi, try to be nice to get it. Oh, it's so nice to see you. And I'd be super Canadian. Oh, thank you for your time. They're like, would you like a coffee, sir? I'm like, what? So that quiet thing was paying the bills. I was digging it. use your voice differently now? The truth is I had injured my voice about right after close to no, I forget which album

but where I had to do this show in a festival. It was like 100,000 people and my voice was tired and they gave me steroids. That's what they always do. And then I sang and I damaged it and I lost already a large range of my voice years ago but nobody noticed and because immediately after that injury I was working with Leonard

Cohen's album and I was like sent Leonard Cohen's stem. Just his voice alone. He has like six notes. I have three octaves, you know what I mean? Like, if you can do that in six notes, I think it's going to be okay that I lost like four notes, you know, with my 30,000 notes I have. But more importantly than that, what was interesting is that when you have Leonard Cohen's voice alone without music, it's doing like 95% of the work. I just learned how to make the words mean something. And then after that first injury, every time I would sing, people were like, oh, your voice

sounds, I got way more compliments after that than when I could sing like, you know, 30,000 notes up high because I learned how to make things mean something. So thanks, Leonard. We've been really lucky having you here all night playing for us. You're going to play one more tune. This place is awesome. Isn't it? I just saw like four ghosts. I'm not going to lie.

What are you going to play? I'm going to play the song that I wrote. It's called Lonely Lights. It's kind of a two stories in one. I was at, not to be too emotional or emo. I was at my mom's funeral, and it was winter. And the problem, you know, in the winter is you can't put someone under. and then she really hated being alone on Sundays at Sunday,

and then we couldn't put it in the ground, and I just couldn't leave because she was like, it was like snowing on her gasket. And I'm like, since they go to the ground, I just kind of had to stay there, and it took me hours of leave because I just couldn't do it. And then that kind of stayed with me for a couple years. And then this strange moment,

they had put my face, I know it seems very abstract, these two ideas, but they had put my face in Times Square. And all I could think about was like at 4 o'clock in the morning, when there was like a 60-foot version of you, I'm square. Isn't that a little bit lonely when you're a big

60-foot person looking down and it's like nobody left? You're like, where did everybody go? I am 60 feet tall, you know? And then somehow those two ideas collided into the song, which I know seems a bit kind of crazy. But that's what gave birth to this song

called Lonely Lights. Anyways. All right. Let's hear. Patrick Watson. Live at the Haskell. When the words, I didn't want to leave there.

With the lines, I don't know, I'm with the lives my die. I deal with them. I was falling on your gentle face I was worried that you paid to call

I know that you hate to be low so I just didn't want to let you go want to let you go take some sun down the cash is closed even the lights in time square feel alone when it's four o'clock in the morning and nobody's head

oh I'm looking around and I wait for there just to be sure you would no be here I just didn't want to let you down Because nobody's here nobody's here Just me and the moon I guess where it ends

and begin I'm beginning Thank you. Lucky us. Patrick Watson, Shana Hayes, and Mishka Stein, and Loner Lights. That will do it. for this special edition of The Current. I want to thank Patrick Watson and his band

for being with us tonight. Thanks as well to Louise Penny and all of our guests on stage. Thanks to you, this amazing, rowdy audience and the staff and the volunteers here at the Haskell Free Library and Opera House. This is a really special part of the country, and we feel privileged and honored

to be here and be able to spend some time here with you. It is a great deal. joy. There is a huge team that makes a program like this possible. We want to thank our colleagues at CBC and Roger Canada here in Quebec for their help and support. Our producers tonight, Julie Chrysler and Susan McKenzie, our

director, Amanda Grant, the technical wizards, Gary Francis, and Dominic Baudouin, senior producer Kathy Simon, the executive producer of the current is Lara O'Brien. One of my favorite things in being able to host this program is taking the current out on the road. We go

to communities big and small, to coast to coast, and we try to, as we say, have Canadians explain themselves to each other. It is what public broadcasting is all about, and it's the best thing about this trial. This audience has had a wild time tonight. If you want us to come to your community next, write us and tell us why we should come there. You can email us at cbc.ca. In the meantime, my name's Matt Galloway, live from the Haskell Library and Opera House, a magical loophole on the border between Quebec.

in Vermont. Thank you for listening to the special edition of the current. For more CBC podcasts, go to cbc.ca.ca.com slash podcasts.