{"id":333530,"date":"2025-12-09T01:12:10","date_gmt":"2025-12-09T01:12:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/333530\/"},"modified":"2025-12-09T01:12:10","modified_gmt":"2025-12-09T01:12:10","slug":"senator-calls-on-ottawa-to-reinforce-canadas-claim-to-island-off-new-brunswick","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/333530\/","title":{"rendered":"Senator calls on Ottawa to reinforce Canada\u2019s claim to island off New Brunswick"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>A Canadian senator from New Brunswick says an American tour company\u2019s description of a small island at the centre of a longstanding sovereignty dispute is \u201cunacceptable.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/d21y75miwcfqoq.cloudfront.net\/70c8fc80\" alt=\"\" style=\"position:absolute;width:1px;height:1px\" referrerpolicy=\"no-referrer-when-downgrade\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Machias Seal Island is a tiny tear-shaped island \u2014 about 550 metres long and 250 metres wide \u2014 located in the Bay of Fundy off New Brunswick.<\/p>\n<p>Both Canada and the United States have tried to claim the island, which is mostly uninhabited except for a lighthouse keeper and some researchers studying the island\u2019s seabird colonies.<\/p>\n<p>Sen. Jim Quinn, who is from New Brunswick, says he was upset to see an American tour company website describe the island as being \u201con the Maine coast.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThat\u2019s unacceptable in this day and age, especially with where we are with our neighbours to the south,\u201d he said. \u201cThat administration has made various claims about Canada and its 51st state and all of these things.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Story continues below advertisement<\/p>\n<p>Machias Seal Island is a\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.canada.ca\/en\/environment-climate-change\/services\/migratory-bird-sanctuaries\/locations\/machias-seal-island.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">migratory bird sanctuary<\/a> maintained by the Government of Canada. The lightkeeper is flown in every few months from the Canadian Coast Guard and only two small tour boat companies, one of which is Canadian and the other American, are allowed to visit the island during certain months.<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" width=\"170\" height=\"225\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/1765086925_518_national.jpg\" alt=\"For news impacting Canada and around the world, sign up for breaking news alerts delivered directly to you when they happen.\"\/><\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\tGet breaking National news<\/p>\n<p>For news impacting Canada and around the world, sign up for breaking news alerts delivered directly to you when they happen.<\/p>\n<p>On its website, the American tour operator Bold Coast Charter Company describes the island as being \u201cthe largest colony on the coast of Maine\u201d and advises American tourists that a passport is unnecessary to visit the spot.<\/p>\n<p>The company\u2019s site also says, \u201cOwnership of the island has been under dispute for many years, with both the United States and Canadian governments claiming sovereignty.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\n\t\t\tMore on Canada<br \/>\n\t\t\tMore videos\n\t\t<\/p>\n<p>Indeed, the <a href=\"https:\/\/globalnews.ca\/news\/4314473\/whats-driving-the-dispute-over-u-s-border-patrols-and-canadian-fishermen-around-machias-seal-island\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">island\u2019s sovereignty has been in dispute for centuries, dating back to 1621, <\/a>and has been revived over the years. The \u201cgrey zone\u201d where Canadian and American claims overlap have also led to disputes between lobster fishermen.<\/p>\n<p>New Brunswick built the lighthouse there in the early 1800s to legitimize it as Canadian.<\/p>\n<p>\n\t\tTrending Now\n\t<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/globalnews.ca\/news\/11568842\/donald-trump-tariffs-fertilizer-canada\/\" class=\"c-posts__inner\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" class=\"c-posts__thumbnail\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/1765242729_974_CP175452246.jpg\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"336\" height=\"224\" alt=\"\"\/><\/p>\n<p>\n\t\t\t\t\tTrump threatens \u2018severe\u2019 tariffs on Canadian fertilizer \u2018if we have to\u2019\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/globalnews.ca\/news\/11568202\/earthquake-japan-tsunami-warning\/\" class=\"c-posts__inner\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" class=\"c-posts__thumbnail\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Japan-Tsunami-Warning.jpg\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"336\" height=\"224\" alt=\"\"\/><\/p>\n<p>\n\t\t\t\t\tMagnitude 7.5 earthquake injures 23 in Japan, triggers tsunami\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt also has an important function in ensuring that the United States government understands that it\u2019s Canadian territory and that we\u2019ve got people there staffing that lighthouse,\u201d said Quinn.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAnd it\u2019s the Canadian flag that flies over that island, not the United States flag.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Story continues below advertisement<\/p>\n<p>Anyone visiting the island needs permission from Canada\u2019s Department of Fisheries and Oceans, and Quinn wants the department to revoke the Bold Coast Charter Company\u2019s permission until they acknowledge the island is Canadian.<\/p>\n<p>He\u2019s also calling on the federal government to do more to tighten up cross-border access.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe have staffed lighthouse keepers there who can check ID and things like that on behalf of customs, but something needs to be done,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe\u2019re being pushed in so many ways, and yet here\u2019s a porous point in our border that that that nobody\u2019s paying attention to.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Global News reached out to Bold Coast Charter Company for comment but hasn\u2019t received a response as of deadline.<\/p>\n<p>\u2013with a file from Amanda Connolly\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\n\t\t&amp;copy 2025 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A Canadian senator from New Brunswick says an American tour company\u2019s description of a small island at the&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":333531,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[49,48,295,146773,66],"class_list":{"0":"post-333530","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-environment","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-environment","11":"tag-machias-seal-island","12":"tag-science"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/333530","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=333530"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/333530\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/333531"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=333530"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=333530"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=333530"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}