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 Editorials | Issues | February 2008 
Ottawa Must Demand Ruling on Canadian Jailed in Mexico
 Charles Rusnell - Edmonton Journal
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 |  | Guergis, and Canada, has an absolute legal right and an obligation to demand an immediate ruling in Martin’s case.
- Deb Tieleman |  | | | |
Edmonton — Supporters of a Canadian woman imprisoned in Mexico for nearly two years without trial are demanding the government exercise its legal right to insist a Mexican judge immediately rule on her case.
Lawyers for Trenton, Ont.-native Brenda Martin filed an application in Guadalajara Jan. 7 asking that the charges against her be thrown out because her constitutional rights under Mexican and international law had been breached.
“By law, the Canadian government can demand that the judge in that case immediately issue a ruling and we want Canada to make that demand,” said Martin’s friend, Waterloo, Ont., businesswoman Deb Tieleman. “Her rights have been breached from the beginning and we want her to be released.”
Mexican police arrested Martin in Puerto Vallarta on Feb. 17, 2006. She was charged with money laundering and being part of a criminal conspiracy.
Martin had worked as a chef for Edmontonian Alyn Waage, who was convicted of operating what is believed to be the largest Internet-based fraud schemes in history.
Martin has strongly professed her innocence and Waage, who is serving a 10-year-sentence in an American jail, has sworn an affidavit stating that Martin had no knowledge of the scheme.
Martin, 51, has languished in jail with her case apparently stalled in the Mexican justice system.
Tieleman recently hired new lawyers to represent Martin and after reviewing the court file, they alleged Martin had been denied her most basic legal rights under Mexican and international law. She had not been provided with a proper translator either by police or the courts.
Police convinced Martin to give two voluntary statements, without a lawyer or translator present, by telling her she was only a witness. They subsequently used those statements to charge her.
Tieleman, and Martin’s lawyer, Guillermo Cruz Rico of Toronto, say Martin’s human rights have also been breached by Mexican authorities. Both Canada and Mexico are signatories to a United Nations treaty on the rights of prisoners. Under that treaty, prisoners who have not been convicted are to be segregated from convicted prisoners.
For the past two years, Martin has shared a 2.7- by by 3.6-metre cell with nine other female prisoners, and one child. One of her cellmates killed two of her children with a pair of scissors. Another cellmate was convicted, along with her husband, in the kidnapping of 11 people. They cut the fingers off a number of their victims to extort ransom from their families.
Martin is also in the same general prison population as a notorious inmate known as the Beauty Queen Killer, who killed 16 women by injecting them with motor oil instead of botox.
Until recently, Canadian consular officials had wrongly assumed Martin was housed in her own cell, Tieleman said.
Tieleman and Cruz are meeting with Helena Guergis, Canada’s secretary of state for foreign affairs, on Tuesday at Guergis’s request.
After months of what Tieleman says was inaction on Martin’s case, Guergis last week travelled to Mexico to lobby top Mexican justice officials for an expedited ruling. Senior Canadian officials also told their Mexican counterparts that Canada was prepared to immediately accept Martin if she was extradited.
Liberal MP Dan McTeague, the foreign affairs critic for consular affairs, said Guergis altered her busy schedule to accommodate the whirlwind trip to Mexico after she learned he intended to visit Martin in Mexico later this month.
McTeague first raised Martin’s case in the House of Commons a year ago and has been pressing Guergis to intervene in the 51-year-old woman’s case. He said he is travelling to Mexico, at his own expense, to maintain pressure on both countries to expedite Martin’s case.
“I am going firstly to assure Brenda that we care about her and will not rest until she receives justice,” McTeague said Saturday. “And I am going out of frustration because the government, until recently, has done nothing to help this poor woman whose legal and human rights have not been respected.”
Guergis did not see Martin during her recent Mexican trip but on Friday she said the Canadian consul general to Mexico visited her for the first time since her incarceration. In a telephone interview Saturday, Martin said she was livid that her case had been effectively ignored by consular officials for two years.
“I said, “You are a little late. You did not look after my basic legal rights. I have spent two years in prison for a crime I did not commit.”
Tieleman said Guergis, and Canada, has an absolute legal right and an obligation to demand an immediate ruling in Martin’s case.
“I want an assurance that Brenda will be released next week,” Tieleman said.
“Canada has to stop pussyfooting around Mexico. They have to take a firm stand and give them an absolute date that this matter will be resolved and explain that there will be repercussions, including a travel advisory, unless that happens.” |
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