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 Editorials | Issues | January 2008 
No Judgment in 2 Years; Ottawa Accused of Not Doing Enough
 Christina Spencer - Winnipeg Sun
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| | Debra Tieleman of Waterloo is certain her friend Brenda Martin is innocent: "There isn't a shred of evidence against her." Now she's working on getting Martin out of the Mexican jail she's been held in since February 2006. (Peter Lee/Record) |
Ottawa - The prison for women in Guadalajara, Mexico, is crammed with hundreds of people either convicted of our awaiting trial for crimes as serious as kidnapping and murder.
They sometimes sleep a dozen to a room, and many keep their small children with them.
For almost two years, Brenda Martin, who grew up in Trenton, Ont., has languished within the walls of this maximum-security institution, charged with money laundering and criminal conspiracy, and wondering whether a judgment will ever be rendered in her case.
Friends describe the 50-year-old woman as severely depressed, even suicidal. She is weak and has lost 30 lbs. And they have harsh words for Ottawa, which they believe is not doing enough to help her. One Canadian MP calls Canada's passivity "unacceptable."
"I haven't seen them (Canadian officials) do much of anything" to assist Martin, says her childhood friend, Debra Tieleman of Waterloo, Ont., who has led a campaign to obtain legal representation and support for Martin. "I have no hope that this government would lift a finger to help her. She's a nobody."
Tieleman has her fingers crossed that Martin's situation will improve as of Monday - the 51st birthday of the incarcerated Canadian.
That day, a lawyer will argue that Mexico has violated its constitution by not affording Martin proper information or translation on legal proceedings and by not treating her as it would any Mexican citizen facing similar charges.
FIRST GOOD NEWS
A judge heard preliminary arguments on these points before Christmas and agreed the challenge could proceed.
It's the first glimmer of good news Martin has received since her arrest Feb. 17, 2006, in the aftermath of a multi-million-dollar investment fraud in which several people have been convicted.
Martin has maintained her innocence in the crime, for which Canadian ringleader Alyn Richard Waage of Edmonton was sentenced to 10 years in a U.S. prison. Waage ran the scam from his Mexican home in Puerto Vallarta, where Brenda Martin worked as a cook before being fired with severance pay. She invested some of that severance in his operation, apparently without knowing its illegal nature.
Tieleman has visited her twice in prison. Martin is held alongside people convicted of drug crimes and murder, in a "surreal" atmosphere where she and 10 other adults and a small child, sleeps in a 9 by 12 ft. room. Says Tieleman: "She's out of her league."
The case has not gone unnoticed. Mexico's ambassador to Canada, Emilio Goicoechea, visited the prison in December, with government officials in tow, to meet Martin and inspect jail conditions. Tieleman was present. "(Brenda) pleaded for his help, she asked why Mexico would do this to her ... she was very, very emotional."
The ambassador's interest has been "a positive factor" according to Guillermo Cruz Rico, the lawyer who will argue Martin's constitutional challenge in Mexico on Monday.
Federal Liberal MP Dan McTeague believes Ottawa should file a diplomatic note of protest over what he says is Mexico's failure to treat Martin on a par with how it would deal with its own citizens.
He says the federal Conservative government "doesn't really give a damn when someone is in harm's way and can't fight their way out."
Calls to the office of Helena Guergis, Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs and International Trade, with responsibility for consular issues, were not returned yesterday. |
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