This old guy lives across the border a little ways from where I live. People have had property straddling the border here for hundreds of years. All that got f'd up after 2001. There's a golf course right near here that's half in Canada and half in the U.S., but Homeland Security spends most of its time stop drug deals and tobacco smuggling there.


U.S. border cuts off Canadian war vet from his N.B. home
(CBC News)
An 85-year-old Canadian war veteran living on the Canada-U.S. border is again feeling pressure from American homeland security officials.

Nikolai Pedersen's property is in Victoria County, New Brunswick, but the road that leads to his farm is in Aroostook County on the U.S. side of the border in Maine.

Five years ago, Pedersen — who lives in Four Falls, about two hours north of Fredericton — couldn't get his mail or the newspaper delivered to his house because U.S. Customs and Border Protection wouldn't allow it. But as the years went by following the 2001 terrorist attacks in New York City and Washington, D.C., the restrictions relaxed.

On Thursday, however, that all changed when Pedersen's daughter, Joan McCue, ran into a roadblock of five cars when she tried to visit her father.

"I said, 'I've been doing this for many years,' and they said, 'You are no longer allowed to do this. It is illegal, and you are subject to a $5,000 fine,' " McCue told CBC News.

RCMP Sgt. Derek Strong said this week's roadblock is a short-term joint Canada-U.S. anti-smuggling operation and isn't targeting the Pedersen family. Their home is the only Canadian property on the road.

"In fact, I would say Mr. Pedersen is about as low a risk as you can get as far as the RCMP or anybody else goes," Strong said.

But a U.S. border protection official told CBC News that the crackdown is the beginning of a long-term "enhanced" security effort on the border.

Special operations supervisor Ben Moreno said people trying to get to Pedersen's house must take a longer route that involves passing through a checkpoint.

"The advice to all visitors into the United States is to present themselves at a lawful port of entry and present their identification and information to the Customs and Border Protection officers to gain legal access into the United States," Moreno said.

The border patrol's main mission, according to its website, is "preventing terrorists and terrorists weapons, including weapons of mass destruction, from entering the United States."

Christ...what a buncha crock.

The obvious solution is to have an exemption for the guy and his family. He's 85 for crissake. The province can buy out the property from the family after he dies.

The road, like many rural border roads, passes into Maine from New Brunswick and then back into New Brunswick a short distance before his house. However, the other end of the road, last I knew isn't plowed or kept up most of the year and the "longer route" is at least 10 miles. There's also a convenience store at the Maine portion of the road. That was no longer accessible to the New Brunswick residents after 9/11 even though you can walk from the guy's backyard into the parking lot. Border Security had people at the store giving citations out to Canadians a few years back.

There was also an example near here where a New Brunswick resident wasn't allowed to go to their backyard clothesline or garden because it was in Maine.

My Mom's backyard cuts into New Brunswick, at least the treeline behind her yard does. The international border skidder trail is just up the hill. There's also a couple dozen logging and maple syrup prodution roads in my hometown that go into Canada. The road she lives on also ends abruptly and changes names from U.S. to Canada, with just a sensor/camera on a pole by the side of the road. And a couple snitch houses, probably.

So what we have are many generations of interrelated folks who came and went without much hassle until magically Canada got dangerous sometime in early 2002.

just separate and become madawaska.

here's my boss's weekend editorial commentary on this silliness: