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 Editorials | Issues | April 2008 
Mexican Ordeal Lets Martin's Estranged Dad Find Daughter
 CBC News
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| | Brenda Martin at her hearing in Guadalajara on April 14th. (Global National) | | |
Brenda Martin's father said he may never have reconnected with his long-lost daughter had she had not gained attention over her legal case that has left her in a Mexican jail for 26 months.
"Well, it's kind of bizarre that I found her because she was in prison. She mentioned that also in her third phone call," Tom Martin told CBC News from Surrey, B.C.
"If she hadn't had been in prison, I probably wouldn't have found her."
His 51-year daughter is expected to learn her fate Tuesday when a judge hands down his verdict on her money-laundering charges. She is accused of being part of a $60-million internet fraud scheme run by Canadian Alyn Waage, who was convicted of fraud in 2006. He is serving a 10-year jail term in a U.S. prison.
Brenda Martin insists she is innocent and worked for Waage only as a chef. Waage has testified Martin was unaware of his activities.
Tom Martin said he last saw his daughter in the summer of 1958, when she was 18 months old, before he split up with his wife.
Martin said his family tried to find his daughter for years but he was estranged from her mother and couldn't find her when she moved east. He said he also assumed she didn't want to be found.
According to the Toronto Star, Brenda Martin had thought her father was dead. She had gone to British Columbia in 1978 to look for him but gave up her search when she was told he had been killed in an accident.
Three weeks ago, Tom Martin said he saw a newspaper article about a woman named Brenda Martin in Mexico, aged 51, the same age his daughter would be.
He then went on the internet, discovered her exact date of birth and sent an e-mail to Brenda Martin's childhood friend Debra Tieleman. He asked if she knew Brenda's middle name and if she was born in New Westminster, B.C., in 1957 and her mother's maiden name.
He said shortly after, he got a call from Brenda's mother Marjorie. The next day, Brenda called him from her Mexican jail.
"It was awesome," he told CBC News. "She asked me if I was really her father and then she reverted back to a little girl and said Daddy get me out of here."
Since the initial call, Tom Martin said he had spoken with Brenda 18 times.
"One day she'd be hopeful, the next day she was totally broken down because things weren't going right. We just kept telling her, 'Hang on, hang on.'"
If Martin is found not guilty, she will be released hours later and could be back in Canada by the end of the week.
If found guilty, Martin could be sentenced to between five and 15 years.
But Martin's friends and family have previously indicated that in the case of a guilty verdict, she would request to be transferred to Canada, as an appeal would require her to remain in a Mexican jail.
"Hopefully she gets out as soon as possible and recuperates in Ontario," Tom Martin said.
"And then we're planning to fly her out here."
Martin said his daughter is looking forward to meeting the two brothers and two sisters she hasn't met. |
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