Indirect speech relating to age or nationality

[ssager]

I understand the rules of direct and indirect speech, but for some reason it is confusing me when it refers to things like age and nationality. For example, it sounds correct to me to say:

"We spoke to George, who told us he "is" 17 years old." or
"We spoke to George, who told us he "is" from Canada."

According to the rule of indirect speech, it should be "was" and not "is" but it doesn't sound right to me.

Can someone confirm?!

[Alan]

The past tense is technically correct in both cases.

However, informally this rule is frequently dispensed with, and this probably accounts for your feeling of 'unease'.