The daughter of a Vietnam War deserter living in B.C. says there is still no word from officials on how her father is doing after his arrest in the U.S. last week.

Jessica Abney said she contacted both American and Canadian authorities about her father Allen Abney, a 56-year old grandfather residing in Kingsgate, B.C.

"And they were not of any help to us," she said Monday in an interview with CTV Newsnet.

Frustrated that her father has not been allowed to make phone calls, Abney said she and her mother Adrienne contacted the Department of Foreign Affairs and the Consulate General of Canada seeking any information they could provide about Allen.

Allen Abney was crossing the U.S. border into Idaho with his wife Adrienne on Thursday last week. They were on their way to Reno, Nev. for a holiday when the border guard asked the two to come inside.

The border authorities placed Abney under arrest for deserting the U.S. Marines in 1968 and sent him on a plane down to a U.S. Marine base near San Diego, Calif.

"I just can't imagine wasting time, valuable time and money on chasing down fifty-five to sixty year old men that have been living peacefully for the last forty years," Adrienne said.

Since Allen's arrest, his wife of 35 years has not been allowed to contact him. The family hasn't been able to tell Allen his brother died.

Allen Abney, who was born in the U.S. but raised in Canada, joined the Marine Corps in 1968 at the age of 19. After going through basic training in North Carolina, Allen fled to Canada before he could be sent to Vietnam.

Thousands of young Americans did the same thing, although many were dodging the draft rather than deserting. Many of them also moved to the southern B.C. interior.

Allen became a Canadian citizen in 1977, the same year that U.S. President Jimmy Carter offered a pardon to war resistors, or so-called "draft dodgers" if they applied.

Carter also allowed war deserters to apply for resolution of their cases. For whatever reason, Allen never applied.

However, he has since travelled through the U.S. many times since his desertion without problems.

Jessica said her father's desertion has always been a "touchy subject."

"I knew that it was something he thought a lot about and it was very difficult for him, so I don't fault him at all. He thought he was making the right decision, and I mean when you're 18-years-old, you do what you can with what you have. "

Charges of desertion have a sliding scale of penalties. The results range from an "other-than-honourable discharge" to a maximum penalty of five years in jail.

The current generation of young Americans who have fled their homeland to avoid service in an overseas war are watching Allen Abney's case with interest.

"I think the military is just using this as a vendetta to prove or make a point that this is what we're going to do to deserters, regardless of what era you deserted from," said Christian Kjar.

He fled the Marines -- and deployment to Iraq -- and is applying for refugee status in Canada.

A spokesman for the U.S. Marines insisted there is no crackdown on deserters, and that no decision has been made yet on whether to court-martial Abney or to give him a dishonourable discharge.

While Abney's family hopes Ottawa steps in, Canada's new ambassador to Washington isn't committing to quick action.

"Certainly we want to find out as much as we can about this and then we'll deal with it in the appropriate manner," Michael Wilson said Monday.

With a report by CTV's Todd Battis