A Quebec man says he is outraged after the U.S. Coast Guard accused him of fishing in American waters and then arrested him before putting him in a jail cell for nearly two hours. Edouard Lallemand, 60, said he nearly drowned during the ordeal last Sunday afternoon after the Coast Guard’s boat “pushed” his boat, causing it to capsize. Days after the incident, he’s still shaken up. “I’m never going to be the same,” he told CTV News. Lallemand said he borrowed his friend’s boat and was fishing near Venise-en-Québec, which is roughly 15 kilometres north of the U.S. border at the northern tip of Lake Champlain. He says he has been fishing for decades and is adamant that he was in Canadian waters when the Coast Guard showed up and told him to turn off his engine, to which he complied. The three officers told him he was in U.S. territory. “I said, ‘No, I’m very sorry, I’m in Canada.’ And I said I’m polite enough to talk to you guys but you cannot arrest me. ‘You can’t come across the border and pick me up’ but they did,” he recalled. Lallemand started his engine and said he wanted to talk with the officers by the shore, but the Coast Guard followed and tried to push him into the U.S., which is what caused him to go overboard. “They’re tying my boat to their boat. They’re not even taking care of me. The third time I went down, coming out with water in my mouth, spitting it out, I said throw me a buoy,” he said. Once on their vessel, he said he was aggressively put in handcuffs. “I never saw somebody so angry,” he said. He was then handed over to U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers, who fingerprinted him, put him in a jail cell with his clothes soaking wet, and gave him a “dirty” blanket. “I said are you arresting me? No sir you’re detained. I said detained for what? I said you aggressed me. I didn’t do nothing to you guys, I didn’t even hit you guys,” he recalled. The U.S. Coast Guard said in a statement to CTV News that Lallemand was “in U.S. Customs waters” when they approached him on July 20 at about 5:30 p.m. “While the Coast Guard’s 29-ft response boat-small was alongside the vessel, the operator put the vessel in motion and ignored commands to maintain course and speed for boarding purposes. The vessel then made an abrupt starboard turn and struck the port bow of the Coast Guard small-boat at coordinates 45°00.792’N, 073°10.608’W, approximately 65 yards south of the U.S./Canadian border. The collision caused the vessel to capsize, putting the operator in the water," the statement reads. “The actions of the operator of the Canadian vessel are currently under investigation.” Lallemand was released after nearly two hours and reunited with his wife, Darlene Fielding. “It’s when I saw him come from the Canadian customs and he was flabbergasted. I’ve never seen him like that. We’ve been together a very long time. He’s like a beaten man,” she said. “We treat our pets better than they treated him.” Lallemand came home with some scrapes and said he would like an apology from the U.S. Coast Guard. He also has a warning for other Canadian boaters. “I want the people to know and to be aware: stay away from the border,” he said. “Even if it’s 500, 600 feet from there.”
