WhatFinger


Canadian, Brenda Martin, Mexican Justice

Calls to boycott Mexico - a couple of years too late



Independent MP Bill Casey is advising his Nova Scotia constituents to refrain from travelling to Mexico. This is in response to the plight of 51-year-old Canadian, Brenda Martin.

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Martin was working as a cook in Mexico for fellow Canadian Alyn Waage. Waage was later charged and convicted of a large investment scam and is now doing serious time in a US prison. Martin was arrested in Mexico two years ago and has been locked up in a Mexican jail ever since. According to Martin she was fired by Waage and received a substantial severance payout. The Mexican authorities allege that she was given this money by her ex-employer in order to launder it as part of the criminal conspiracy. Perhaps the least relevant fact in the Brenda Martin saga is which version is the truth. Martin has recently stated that she has become a political pawn regarding Canada and there is little doubt that she is right. Her visitors list in the Mexico prison in which she is being held is beginning to look like a who's who of the Canadian political elite. Jetting off to Mexico to visit Martin in jail seems to be replacing kissing babies in an effort to win political brownie points. Brenda Martin indeed has become a pawn, especially between the Liberals and the Tories who are bickering in public about who should be doing what, when. The real anger began after Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, Helena Guergis went to Mexico and attended a cocktail party about 20 km away from where Martin is detained and never bothered to visit her. Guergis's explanation for not seeing the incarcerated Canadian was that it wasn't her job. While it is technically correct that ministerial responsibilities do not include visiting inmates' in jail, it is hard to think of a greater example of political naivety. Years from now, when the history of the Harper government is written, Helena Guergis will be remembered as "the cute one". While quiet diplomacy may get the government somewhere, there is little that Canada can do to free Martin who is perhaps the least sympathetic Canadian to achieve victimhood status in Mexico. She voluntary moved to that country and willingly became subject to that country's laws for a purpose other than getting a couple of weeks of sunshine during a Canadian winter. The circumstances that led to her arrest could have easily happened in Canada, although if it had she would have been released on bail, been given a trial, and with Waage's evidence that she had nothing to do with his fraudulent schemes, would have stood a good chance of being acquitted. She is responsible for putting herself under the laws of Mexico; no one else is. The time to boycott Mexico was two years ago when Domenic and Nancy Ianiero from Woodbridge Ontario were murdered in their Mexican resort room. While crimes such as that can happen anywhere (can anyone say "Scarborough"?), what happened afterwards was worthy of a boycott. Two young Canadian women who were staying at the same resort and who had returned home shortly after the horrific murder, became the main suspects of the Mexican authorizes in the Ianiero murders. The two women may have picked up some of the murdered couple's blood from the hallway and taken it into their room, but it was virtually impossible to find anyone north of the Rio Grande who believed that they had anything to do with the killing. The whole sloppy investigation screamed for a Canadian boycott of Mexico. But we were too busy laughing about Cheryl Everall and Kimberly Kim being the "killer moms" that we never got around to it. Since the murder of the Ianieros, there have been several mysterious deaths of Canadians on Mexican soil including young Canadians "jumping" out of windows and others being hit by cars and dying from injuries that were inconsistent with such "accidents". Yet we never bothered to boycott Mexico over these incidents; why should a boycott be started now? The reality is that there is little the Canadian government can do regarding Brenda Martin. Canada's role is simply to insure that their citizens receive all the rights that Mexicans are entitled to under Mexico's justice system. Harper can no more demand the release of a Canadian citizen from a Mexican jail than the president of Mexico can demand the release of a Mexican held here because he doesn't like the way our justice system functions. If anyone really cared about protecting Canadians from Mexico, the boycott would have started after the Ianieros met their fate. And like the person who drives an SUV while bemoaning global warming, nothing is likely to deter Canadians from seeking the Mexican sun. This is nothing more than the politicians playing politics with Brenda Martin, their latest pawn.


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Arthur Weinreb -- Bio and Archives

Arthur Weinreb is an author, columnist and Associate Editor of Canada Free Press. Arthur’s latest book, Ford Nation: Why hundreds of thousands of Torontonians supported their conservative crack-smoking mayor is available at Amazon. Racism and the Death of Trayvon Martin is also available at Smashwords. His work has appeared on Newsmax.com,  Drudge Report, Foxnews.com.

Older articles (2007) by Arthur Weinreb


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