Americans, go home: Tension at Canada-US border

A July poll by Ipsos Reid found that eight in ten Canadians wanted the border to stay closed until at least the end of 2020.

And as the pandemic has continued to spread across the US, so have tensions between American drivers and Canadian residents.

While non-essential travel is forbidden, commercial drivers delivering goods and people who work across the border in essential services are permitted to cross.

People with American licence plates have reported being harassed and having their vehicles vandalised, even if they have every right to be on the Canadian side.

Mr Saunders, an immigration lawyer who has many clients who cross the border regularly in order to work, says many people are afraid.

"They're all scared of driving their cars in the lower mainland because of vandalism, dirty looks and just getting treated as some 'horrible American'," he told the BBC.

One of his clients, an architect who was allowed to practise in Canada during the shutdown, says he was told to "go back home" because of his car.

The tensions are so high that British Columbia Premier John Horgan suggested that Canadians with out-of-province licence plates should take the bus or ride bikes instead.

In the Muskoka region of Ontario, where many people have summer homes, the hostility has garnered police attention.