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05 March 2008

The Sasquatch Hunters

There are a few people in Newfoundland and Labrador who think that the 1927 Privy Council border between Labrador and Quebec has been changed.

It hasn't.

The 1927 border is the legal border between Labrador and Quebec.

terre-neuve-labrador What has some people upset is a recent map of Quebec (left), issued by the Quebec provincial government, which shows two borders on the southern portion.

The 1927 border is clearly marked.

The other one - to the north of it - represents where the border might be if one amended the 1927 decision to encompass the headwaters of rivers that flow south.

Basically the Privy Council determined the boundary of Labrador took in all land from the headwaters of rivers flowing into the Atlantic.  On the portion flowing generally southward to the St. Lawrence, they didn't apply the same rule. The Privy Council drew a line across the parallel, hence the straight portion shown clearly on the map.

Legally, that's the border.

The 1927 one.

The Government of Quebec can draw as many pictures as it wants. Unless and until the Quebec government tries to exercise legal jurisdiction north of that 1927 line, there isn't an issue.

And they won't do that because, while they draw pretty pictures, Quebec lawyers know where the border is.

They even mark it on their maps:  Trace de 1927.

And those people who insist the border is changed?  Well, they are a bit like people who run around looking for Sasquatch.  They "know" it's there and they keep hunting for evidence.  They haven't turned up any evidence, but they keep looking for it all the same.

They don't turn up any evidence because, as most people know, the Sasquatch doesn't exist except in drawings people made up.

-srbp-