Love knows no borders

When Zoe Vezina said goodbye to her fiance Will Terrall earlier this year, she didn’t expect they’d be separated for long.

The couple was living in Australia - since she’s Canadian, from B.C., and he’s American, from Oregon, it was the only real opportunity for them to live together since they started dating two years ago, she explained. When he left to meet up with some friends in Vietnam. She planned to join him a couple of weeks later. 

But before Vezina’s departure date, the COVID-19 pandemic struck, borders began closing left and right, and Justin Trudeau made his now-infamous plea to Canadians abroad: “It’s time to come home.”

So instead of hopping aboard a flight to Vietnam, she travelled back to B.C., opting to move into her parents’ suite in her hometown of Nelson rather than return to Vancouver.  

By the time her fiance landed back on American soil, the border separating them had been closed to non-essential travel, and the pair had no idea when they’d be able to reunite.  

“It was really devastating,” Vezina said. “It was and has been an emotional roller coaster.”

But, when B.C.’s provincial parks reopened to the public for day use earlier this month, a loophole for couples like Vezina and Terrall did, too.

Peace Arch Provincial Park in Surrey is unique from B.C.’s other provincial parks in that it’s a shared territory with our southern neighbours, located along the westernmost edge of the world’s longest un-militarized border. Although the southern end of Peace Arch is owned by Washington State Parks and the northern half is governed by British Columbia Provincial Parks, visitors are free to roam within its boundaries, even crossing the physical border that runs through the middle of the park, without having to face either side’s customs or border services agencies. 

While a handful people who found themselves separated from their loved ones have been getting creative and heading to the Fraser Valley, where parallel roads run on opposite sides of the border, for physically distanced “border dates,” Peace Arch’s reopening means cross-border couples and families can head to the park to see, hug and hang out with their loved ones in person - without a pesky ditch or loud traffic getting in the way. 

Vezina booked a flight from Nelson and a hotel room in Surrey, Terrall drove the five hours from Portland, and they reunited for the first time in months.   

“It was emotional, but really, really amazing,” she recalled. “Just seeing him walking down the hill and us just walking towards each other, and then we just had a really big hug, I jumped into his arms and had a little cry.” 

Despite the long commute for a picnic, “If this park is going to stay open, and if they're not going to change the travel restrictions and loosen them up a little bit for family reunification - which is what we're really hoping for - then I'll probably be down there in another month,” Vezina said.

“It's an expensive trip, but it’s something that for our own mental well being, I think, is just super important.”