Border senior faces daily customs hassle

An elderly farmer from Perth-Andover is fighting a government rule that says his visitors must report personally to border patrol officers before going to his front door.

Nickolaj Pedersen's farm is on the border with the United States. The farm is in Canada but the road leading to it is in the U.S. That means Pedersen and anyone who visits him must cross the border twice to drive into Perth-Andover.

That makes life difficult because since 2002, new rules say anyone crossing into Canada must report to the border patrol in person.

Nickolaj and Marion Pedersen first made news a couple of years ago when they got in trouble with the American border patrol on the same issue.

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Marion died last year and her family believes the stress of the security hassles is partly to blame.

Now Nickolaj, who's 82, is suffering too, according to his daughter Joyce. "It's affected his health, the fact that he isn't sleeping well. He's under medication, under doctor supervision."

Border agency spokesperson Jennifer Morrison says officials are meeting in Ottawa to work things out for Pedersen and relatives who want to visit him.

"This is a very unique situation for the Pedersens, as it is for the Canadian Border Services Agency," Morrison says. "We have been working very hard to come up with some solutions for the Pedersens."

Pedersen's daughter Joyce believes the answer is simple. Ottawa should just purchase the property and move her father to a home away from the border.