|
|
|
 News from Around the Americas | March 2008 
High-Level Visit has Martin's Friends Cautiously Optimistic
 W. Brice McVicar - The Intelligencer
go to original
| | Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper has personally intervened on behalf of Brenda Martin. | | |
Supporters of Brenda Martin are cautiously optimistic after learning of a visit today by two government officials who are in Mexico to meet with the imprisoned woman.
Minister Responsible for Multiculturalism, Jason Kenney, along with Northumberland - Quinte West MP Rick Norlock have flown to Mexico to meet with Martin. The visit follows a series of political moves by the Conservative government including a diplomatic note which was sent to Mexico last week and a telephone call to Mexican president Felipe Calderon by Prime Minister Stephen Harper Monday night.
News of the visit was warily received by Liberal MP Dan McTeague who has been criticizing the Conservatives for more than a year about its perceived inactivity on the case.
“It appears we have finally got the government to act deliberately on this case only after intense media pressure,” he said.
McTeague said his concern about the visit is that it may raise expectations that Martin is coming home. However, he said the decision to send Kenney — whom he described as Harper’s “right hand man” — certainly indicates there could be a move to have Martin released and brought back to Canada.
“My only hope is that Kenney’s mission to meet Brenda is to bring her back with Norlock,” he said. “If that is not the case, they will only aggravate a very delicate situation.”
The “delicate situation” is Martin’s mental state. The former Trenton-resident is suicidal and has begged Harper on national television to intervene in her case.
McTeague, who also visited Martin in prison earlier this year, said if the flight is nothing more than a public relations opportunity for the government it is “completely the wrong way to approach this.”
Though Norlock could not immediately be reached for comment his executive assistant, Tom Rittwage, told The Intelligencer the trip is an opportunity for Norlock and Kenney to ensure Martin’s rights are being met by the Mexican authorities.
“Will they bring her home? The situation is she’s still subject to Mexican law,” Rittwage said.
Pressed for details, Rittwage said he knows there are hopes the flight is Martin’s key to freedom.
“We’re going down there and we’re going to meet with her,” he said. “We’d love to say we’re going down there and she’s going to get on a plane and come home with us but she’s still subject to Mexican law.
“I honestly couldn’t tell you what the outcome will be but we’ just keep our fingers crossed that something positive and good is going to come out of this. We’re hopeful but I don’t imagine that she’ll be coming home.”
If martin does not come home with Norlock and Kenney than the trip is “cruel and inhumane” said Martin’s friend and advocate Deb Tieleman.
Tieleman said she is hoping the visit is more than just an opportunity for Norlock to show the public he does care about Martin. She said it would help the Conservative MPs image in the eyes on constituents if he returned later this week with Martin.
“If they’re just going down there for political posturing then they might as well just shoot her,” she said.
Martin was employed as a chef for a former Albertan, Alyn Richard Waage, in Puerto Vallarta for 10 months in 2001. Waage was operating an Internet fraud scheme at the time though he pretended to be an investor. He was eventually arrested and is serving a 10-year sentence in an American jail.
Through further investigation Mexican officials came to believe Martin was also involved in the scheme. She was charged with money laundering and being part of a criminal conspiracy.
Despite a sworn affidavit provided by Waage saying Martin had no knowledge of his operations and her own continued profession of innocence Martin has remained in jail since Feb. 17, 2006.
bmcvicar(at)intelligencer.ca
Canadian PM Calls Mexican President to Seek Release of Jailed Canadian National in Guadalajara Prison
Vittorio Hernandez - AHN News
go to original
Ottawa, Canada - Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper has personally intervened on behalf of a Canadian woman reportedly ill-treated in prison in Guadalajara. He called by telephone Mexican President Felipe Calderon to tackle the case of Brenda Martin.
Martin, a native of Ontario, was arrested for illegally working in Mexico, but she has been in jail for two years without being charged in court for her alleged involvement in an investment scam. She maintained her innocence of the accusation and threatened to take her life if she is not released soon.
Harper told Calderon he will send Jason Kenney, Canadian Minister for Multiculturalism, to Mexico to visit the Canadian woman. Kenney is expected to leave Tuesday for a two-day visit to Guadalajara. The prime minister's spokesman, Dimitri Soudas, said over the past two years, Canada had more than 100 contacts with Martin, and continues to oversee the conduct of her case.
No further details of Harper's telephone conversation with Calderon were disclosed.
Mexico officials said Martin's case will soon come to an end, but they blamed her legal team for the long incarceration of Martin. The Mexicans pointed out Martin's lawyers had the legal ability to separate her case from her co-accused in the fraud case, but they failed to do it, causing her two year stay in the Guadalajara penitentiary.
Martin was a chef in Puerto Vallarta for 10 months in 2001. It was her former employer, Alyn Waage, who run an Internet fraud operations that cheated over 15,000 people from various countries of $60 million in a pyramid investment scheme. Waaga has cleared Martin of involvement in the scam. |
| |
|
Vallarta Weddings
Tell a Friend
Site Map
Print this Page
Email Us