ARCHIVED BRENDA MARTIN PAGE (This page has been archived with the arrival on May 1/08 of Brenda Martin from Mexico. This page was originally displayed for several months as the situation developed and I researched the case. If you follow the page you will see how I started off with one opinion and ended up with another. In all it was a sad story with the beginnings of a happy ending on May 1/08
BRENDA MARTIN IN MEXICO- The rest of the story? (Editor's note: here is the story as it progressed where I first thought it might all be a giant con then realized that it was in fact a giant mistake where we have a poor Canuck woman stuck in the cracks of a Mexican judicial system and her home government effectively did nothing for two years ( ie they a few things but didn't get the job done) to solve the problem i.e. bring her back to Canada-finally they started to work harder to get Brenda back home. It was a eye opener to research and to observe how others reacted to the story)
Canadians have been shocked by the images of fifty something Ms. Martin and then her poor Mom, on the TV sobbing uncontrollably and begging for her freedom from a Mexican jail where she has been held for two years without charges. Many have taken up her cause including a childhood friend, and Canadian politicians at the highest levels. Millions of taxpayers dollars and considerable resources have been spent on the case. The way the media has been reporting on the story everyone in Canada is now thinking that :
a. Mexico is being grossly unfair and is treating Martin atrociously while acting like a banana republic.
b. Martin is completely innocent of any crime and is a victim of a corrupted Mexican judicial system
c. Canadians want Martin back in Canada immediately.
d. This has done a huge amount of damage in the attitude the average Canadian has towards Mexico
I have been watching this develop and seeing poor and pathetic Ms. Martin cry uncontrollably certainly brought a tear to my eye and twigged that protective reflex every man feels when he sees a small, frail looking, older woman cry and the concept of an innocent Canadian rotting in a foreign jail certainly aroused all my nationalistic feelings including the concept of retaliation against the Mexicans.
Canadians are basically very nice people well most of us- as long as we get our way and we like to do nice things (where possible and within reason-as long as its not too much trouble and you are a member of a similar race or special interest group) and this case was really pulling on our heart strings and getting the entire country very upset. People were demanding action, verbally attacking Mexico and really getting pissed off to use the more technical term. It was elevated to water cooler talk at offices and grousing along with taxes and the price of gas and the stupidity of politicians etc between Canadians everywhere on phone in talk shows, blogs, and from TV and radio Correspondents. Then I noticed something. That cold wet snout of reality. And that's what this website is all about - bringing actual reality into the public eye. This can be a dangerous process to the messenger.
The was going off. So, I looked at the case again. Something here just didn't add up. Was it Ms. Martin or something else? But something was wrong.
Our Prime Minister commented that it was a "very complicated" situation. Now this is a polite way of saying that there is more here that meets the eye. Now Stephen Harper, despite what the opposition parties claim - is a pretty intelligent fellow and when he makes a statement like that I listen. You may recall before the Financial meltdown in the USA Mr. Harper cautioned that the (near) future would contain some challenging times for our economy. He was right again. What is meeting the eye up til now - is what the media in Canada are reporting. And what the media in Canada are reporting is what the media wants us to know. So out came my ex-Auditor's eyeballs. Who is benefiting by this? One way or the other I was going to figure this out!
1. Ms Martin is benefiting by getting millions of dollars of positive advertising and (if she survives the prison) she will be in a position to write a book or even make a living off this for years. Free advertising (good or bad) is often an opportunity to print money. From a complete unknown, Ms. Martin is now effectively a Canadian national brand. But why? I have no doubt Ms. Martin just wants out of this situation and the "free advertising" is furthest from her mind. I sense being a national brand is the furthest thing from her mind!
2. The Canadian opposition parties and members of Parliament are deriving a benefit by using Ms. Martin as a poster child and living proof for the governments incompetence in doing anything. They are hoping for votes. They are stoking the fires by demanding that the Canadian Govt. do more for poor Ms. Martin. An ex-Liberal Prime Minister (Mr. Martin) visited her and gave her "a ten minute hug!"
3. The media are making money with a politically correct story that attracts viewers and has long legs so they can keep on going back to it over an extended period. And they get to go down and work in balmy Mexico during a mean Canadian winter. Holy smokes what a deal eh! I know I am being a rat saying this.
4. Lawyers are making money as they represent Ms. Martins' interests at truly impressive hourly rates. The cash flow is full on for them. Yipeee!! And I know lawyers liked being paid just like the rest of us. And they are usually worth it. In fact we all will come to the day where we need a good lawyer and will be glad to pay the fees.
5. Advertisers are making money as the media attracts more viewers and readers and so ads purchased at a certain price based on lower viewer ship actually generate more sales with the larger viewer ship. Its a win win!.
6 Tourist dollars are going to Mexico in large numbers -if Mexico is perceived as a risky location to Canadians those billions will go to other areas and those areas and their promoters are the ones who will benefit by any boycott of Mexico. The largest benefactor would be the USA because that's where most Canadian tourists visit. Other Southern vacation spots are the Dominican Republic and Cuba. where Canadians represent a full half of the tourists visiting there. At any given time there are between 1.5 and 2 million Canucks traveling outside of Canada so the money here is pretty significant and the Mexico portion is a juicy amount of cash to compete for. Can Mexico be trusted to treat Canadians fairly?
So, next step. Lets do some research into just what caused Ms Martin to end up in a Mexican jail. Why was she arrested for money laundering and conspiracy in the first place?
We need to understand who Ms. Martin worked for. She worked for the notorious Alyn Waage the Canadian con man from Alberta who was convicted of a 60 million dollar internet swindle scheme where his company Tri-West Investments offered to pay 120% returns to trusting investors from around the world. She worked for Mr. Waage (apparently an extremely generous and fair employer) as his Chef for a ten month period ending in 2001 and then was fired and paid a healthy severance of a year's salary.
An interesting reader's comment on the National Post online article by correspondent John Ivison No justice for Brenda Martin in Mexico March 14/2008. This comment from a reader alerts us to the fact there may be more to the story than we are being fed from our media. In fact there is an impact in Mexico from the emotional cries from Canadians against Mexico. This is predictable with lots of bias but here is an example of how somebody expresses an opinion without many or any facts. Some will find it compelling some will find it to be bullshit but here goes-.
Now lets take a closer look at this Alyn Waage dude, the convicted bad man who is now serving (only) 10 years in a American jail. You know ten years for 60+ million seems a rather light sentence so perhaps he is not as bad as we might think. The American justice system is certainly not hesitant in handing out long sentences when the case calls for it. Interesting. So he can't be that bad?
What exactly did Ms. Martin do as Chef for this crook? She prepared (and ate) fancy meals with stolen money provided by Waage, slept in a bed paid for from stolen money from Waage, lived and worked in luxurious quarters and a luxurious life style paid for from stolen money received from Waage received a generous salary and a severance from stolen money from Waage, entertained guests associated with the crimes of Waage and a slow person might say by George Ms Martin lived off the avails of crime eh! The claim she knew nothing about the scams and was not involved in the scams and even invested part of her severance in the scams is a fine thing to say in defense but where is the ring of truth? It just sounds very very bad. Well except for the part where she invested her own money in the scheme. Why would she do that if she knew it was a fraud? So much for the mental image of Ms. Martin blissfully ignorant frying up Mr. Wagge's bacon and eggs and doing the dishes completely oblivious that all that cash and the overly lavish and extravagant lifestyle was maybe an indication that just maybe she was working for a crook. But to be fair to Ms. Martin was she actually involved in the scam itself? That's kind of an important question! This is why she is in jail!
(Editors note: It was about this point that I first started to realize that something sounded wrong in this story. A critical fact was simply -was Ms. Martin a part of the scam and I began to realize that all the evidence to date pointed against it...)
Now while there appears to be no argument that she was working for a crook or that there was a giant internet scam there is the question did Ms Martin play a direct part in the scam itself? Ms. Martin says no. Mr. Waage (the crook) says no. I have not seen any indication that there is any evidence that she knew about the scam or played a direct part in the scam. If in fact Ms Martin was NOT a direct part of the case then a huge disservice has been done here and she has been the very unfortunate victim of justice gone awry in Mexico and insufficient support for Canadians abroad from Ottawa. In other words the stakes are high here for assigning blame for this.
THE WANTED AND THE UNWANTED I reviewed this website and comments from the Edmonton Journal where in 2003 they provided details on this book by Author Roger Harrison about the Waage case. The information is very interesting. Note that the book is presented as a novel based on a true story so the names of the characters have been changed. However Ms. Martin is not portrayed as one of the characters -further proof that she was not one of the players here. Apparently Wagge, originally a man of simple food tastes, began buying $500 bottles of wine -three cases at a time and had King Crab legs flown in from Alaska. Hmmmmmm. No KD for this boy! Ahhh the good life! It sounds like a pretty interesting book. The fact that the largest Internet scam ever to this point was so well documented in it is a real bonus for anybody trying to understand this case. I look forward to reading it one day.
Then I considered the millions of Canadians that have vacationed in Mexico over the years and nearly all of them loved it and often went back for more. Apparently over one million Canadians visit Mexico each year and there are only 13 of them in Mexican jails which to me sounds like a lot better odds that an average Canadian city in which there is a Canadian in jail for every 864 citizens. (In the States it is a mind numbing 1 in every 131 citizens!). In fact there is a large Canadian population that has invested in property in Mexico and is living there full time. And the few Mexicans I have run across in Canada -often migrant farm workers mainly seem to have been exceptionally hard working honest people who were friendly and ate really tasty food that I liked too! There are many manufacturing jobs in Mexico today because the Mexicans are hard working, industrious people who do excellent work.
So at least from my personal research and experience Mexico and Mexicans are not the evil villains that the Martin case is painting them out to be. And yet if Martin is not a player in this Waage scam then what the hell is going on here? Its beginning to look like she fell through the cracks and we have a very sad situation here for everyone, Ms Martin, the Mexican Justice System and the Canadian Government. Did somebody goof? Or was it a bunch of mistakes which is usually the case when something goes bad.
So digging deeper...
Take a look at this report on Rebecca Roth an American who was also involved in the Waage case and who also is in the same prison as Ms Martin. WHY HAS THIS CASE NEVER BEEN MENTIONED TO CANADIANS IN THE MEDIA? Rebecca seems to be in the same situation Brenda is in. Why?
By this time, a picture is starting to form and its not pretty and its certainly not what many in our trusty media have been shoveling out to Canadians. An interesting and slightly salacious bit of Gossip is that Roth and fellow jail birdy Ms Martin were both competed for the Queen of the Prison crown back in March 22/07. Some will use this as proof a Mexican jail is not a tough place to be. That would be stupid. Think about it -do you really want to be Queen of the Prison? I think not!
Not that it matters but from what I hear you can be very comfortable in a Mexican jail if you have some cash or very uncomfortable if you don't. Brenda doesn't have any cash. Unlike a Canadian jail, where the taxpayer pays all the bills -in Mexico the prisoner is expected to pay for some of their upkeep costs and treats. Not entirely unreasonable some would say. And apparently, by Mexican standards, Ms. Martin has received reasonable treatment and medical care and access to assistance from Canada. There are even reports that a lot of the problems Ms. Martin is facing are related to some of the decisions she has taken in her legal case including her frequent change of lawyers. Who knows but why isn't that appearing in the press? Apparently her jail mate Ms Roth has been studying Spanish, sewing and other stuff while being incarcerated so it might not be as horrible as we are told- although I am sure its not like being on a vacation. We are getting conflicting information. Again something is wrong here.
Over 15,000 investors were robbed by the Waage ponzi scheme. He would take their money, promise that their investments would double and then pay initial investors from money generated from new investors. Its the classic Ponzi scheme. It was all done from a basement in his luxurious Mexican palatial estate which he purchased with cash from the scheme. When you think of the poor investors that got ripped off and the lives that must have been ruined you begin to see the pure evil associated with this case. It is not a pretty picture but all of it his being hidden by the Canadian media as they use Ms. Martin as a focus point for Canadian good will. There was some serious criminal activity going down here. But was Ms. Martin involved in it?
Is Ms Martin guilty (as not yet charged)? I don't know -that's a legal matter. But so far there is no proof and what has come out is that she is not even involved in the scheme other than to be the unfortunate Chef and House Manager while it was going on. Is there more than meets the eye here? Yes. Are people being duped? Yes. Is the going off? Yes
I wonder how the 15,000 people who were ripped off over 60 million are treating this case? I wonder how long its going to take for more of the reality of the case to work its way into the media and Canadian's minds. Its likely they would love to tar and feather anyone even vaguely associated with the scam. But the cook? That's a stretch.
Should Ms. Martin be brought home to Canada so Canadian taxpayers can pay for her jail time? It might be a lot cheaper than the tax money being spent on her now. If she was not involved then YES! Frankly I don't know because Doing a few minutes of research on the internet has certainly not placed me in a position being an expert and of knowing what is really going on here.
Editor's note Perhaps I am being too hard on myself because whereas I am not an expert on the topic I certainly know a hell of a lot more about it than some people I hear expressing opinions on the case with almost no knowledge or understanding of it. Some of these people simply parrot positions raised by the two special interest groups trying to protect their positions ie Mexico and Canada's Foreign Affairs. Other people see it as it is and have expressed great support for Brenda.
I hope that fellow Canadians will at least review some of the facts. Who is the fritto bandito here? Is it Ms. Martin? Those supporting her case for financial gain? Just Gringo Mr. Waage? We already have Canadians calling for boycotts, retaliation, and making very emotional anti-Mexican statements. The case can be approached on many different levels. A good place to start is to listen to what the other side is saying. To date we have been given a one sided rendition of reality and as we should know by know that's bullshit. In fact it seems possible to support Ms. Martin and the Mexican side here. Perhaps there have been poor decisions made regarding lawyers representations and perhaps her case has fallen through the legal system's cracks. Two years is a long time to spend in jail especially if you are not guilty.
Mexican Embassy -Ottawa Here is the Mexican perspective on the story. Naturally they are supporting their case but its very interesting to see what they have to say and to note that not much of what they have had to say is making it into the Canadian media.
Summary.
The Brenda Martin case is a lot more complicated than it would appear as treated in the media of the day. It's certainly worth of another careful look before we gullible Canucks go charging off in all directions dishing our Mexican cousins. We Canadians are so gullible that its entirely possible we could get sucked into a monstrous misappropriation of emotional energy and money that could be much better spent on fixing something else that is much more worthy. It looks like the media has almost purposely built up a bogus story knowing full well it will ignite the passions of Canadians and result in an even bigger story- in effect they are manufacturing the news almost in CNN fashion.
Now perhaps we could invest all that emotional energy being unleashed to better use- like maybe putting smoke alarms in Reservation living quarters so that children won't die in house fires or providing de-tox centers for Canadian kids living on the streets or homes for homeless people etc. Oh yes there is a story here alright but exactly what it is -is a mystery at this point Hopefully those in charge can sort it out before it drags on too much longer. We also have some excellent Correspondents who if given the nod from their Editors - would be able to quickly get to the bottom of this. Its time to unleash them. Write or wrong Ms. Martin is clearly in fragile health and in a giant pickle and we Canucks and our Mexican cousins need to do the right thing -whatever that is. March 20/2008
In the mean time-
What do you do when you live in a shoe?
Update March 21/08
got this snippet from the RonPaul War Room site
"...Martin started working for Waage in May 2000 as a chef, earning about $500 a week. Waage fired her in March 2001 at the behest of his mother, who had been offended by Martin. Waage paid Martin severance of a year’s salary — $26,000"
-this tells me two things -$500 a week is not an unreasonable (or extravagant) amount and a full years salary is very generous. Of course I am so suspicious now with all that cash flying about -was that just the amount used for her tax return so that she could collect a Canadian Pension (CPP) in her later years? It seems that all reports I have read indicate Waage was extremely generous with the money he stole from investors so a lot of people benefited from his actions-not unfortunately the investors. Of course I suspect all those people he helped wouldn't lift a finger to help him now that he is in jail.
-Also Ms Martin was described as a Chef and House Manager- a significantly more administrative position than just the person (in Brenda's words "a nobody really") doing the cooking so one might conclude she had or should have had a better appreciation of what was going on? At 15,000 square feet that's the size of about ten Canadian average homes. "House Manager " could be a big job. What a mess.
another update March 21/2008 I have been thinking about this case. It just hit me how sad the entire thing is. There is the loss to the 15,000+ investors and their $60 million + dollars. There is the loss of freedom to Ms. Marten and Ms. Roth. There is Mr. Waage himself who is sitting in an American jail for ten years and by his picture he doesn't look all that healthy. There is Mr. Waage's son who was caught up in the swindle activity. There are many more sad cases including family members of all those involved here. It truly is a mess. Here is a case where people were basically living in a dream world with unlimited flows of cash and wealth, with a fleet of luxury cars, a yacht, a plane, a magnificent house in a wonderful climate, unlimited luxury foods and the finest of booze. All because somebody thought they could be a bullshit artist. And that all came crashing down. But its clearly a case where more than one person was involved and many people benefited. But what if any was Ms. Martin's involvement? She is the one in jail here.
I find that when you uncover a rock in today's world something with a hundred legs suddenly slithers out and runs over your toes. And bites you. All is not what it seems. A lot of it is....bullshit!
NEW QUESTIONS IN THE CASE (and why aren't we seeing these questions in the media?)
1. REVENUE CANADA And where was Revenue Canada in this multi million dollar Canadian Internet swindle? Was Mr. Waage submitting a tax return to Revenue Canada declaring any of this income? Did Revenue Canada simply accept the returns as provided or did they audit them? Did Revenue Canada drop the ball?
2.RCMP And where was the RCMP in this huge case of Internet fraud? Did they investigate the case and did this result in Mr. Waage getting caught or did it completely slip by them? Was it another case of not giving our Mounties any resources to do the job and then blaming them for not doing it?
3. CANADIAN SECURITIES INDUSTRY And just where was the Canadian Security Industry in the Waage affair? Each Province has responsibility for regulating the security industry in their province. Where were they and what did they do? Did they drop the ball? The 60 million dollar ball?
4. THE MEDIA This scam had been going on for years - why didn't the Canadian media cover it until Mr. Waage was actually caught at the border trying to carry approx 4 million dollars in cash into Mexico? Did the media completely drop the ball?
5. HIDDEN AGENDA Why are the Mexicans holding two of the people least implicated (Rebecca Roth and Brenda Martin) in the case when they deported ALL the main players to the USA so they could be charged. Do they have a hidden agenda? What might that be?
6.CYA GOVERNMENT OF CANADA Was the Canadian Government on top of this case over the last two years? Are they now trying to cover their ass (CYA)? Any Canadian considering traveling abroad needs to know this that their government will be there for them ensuring that Canadians are treated fairly when in the custody of foreign justice systems. If they dropped the ball the Minister needs to resign. No excuses. And if there is a government problem here is it an error that the civil service made in implementing policy or the elected Minister in setting policy? Or are both at blame here? The alarm bells MUST have been ringing here -did nobody listen or did they listen and purposely not do enough to solve the problem? This is kind of important stuff.
Editor's note -From this point on I think I on the right track in this case. The facts are starting to gel and form a much better understanding of just what is going on here. Brenda is the small unfortunate pawn in this story. She is the victim. We need her back in Canada.
Update March 23/08 After now spending a few hours on this case I am now coming to a slightly different conclusion. There are several levels of subtlety here in this case which are not immediately evident when you first hear the reporting. First of all there is the emotional component from Ms. Martin and now from her supporters. That's very sad. And it results in a predictable knee jerk type of reaction from viewers. But then there is the legal component which relates to the Waage case itself and specifically Ms. Martins participation or non participation in it. The facts there are best displayed in a court of law where evidence can be offered by a prosecutor and disputed by a defense attorney. But this hasn't happened. Then there is the political component both from Mexico and Canada -neither government in true CYA fashion wishing to admit that any errors were made here. There is the financial component -just who is benefiting or planning to by this case? Then there is the media component and the difficulty in telling the story because to tell the story you need the facts.
And finally there is the human component. A frail broken Ms. Martin trapped in a jail cell awaiting justice.
Bring her home! Lets cut the bullshit here. It's time for our respective Governments to work with our respective Justice systems to resolve this sad situation. Two years in the jail is long enough for this case. Just my opinion. -ron
Update March 24th 2008 Well well well...This is interesting. Charles Rusnell from the Edmonton Journal has interviewed Alyn Waage. Read about it here. This is a real bombshell about how the Mexican system works. Brenda Martin is definitely looking like a victim of that system now and where in the Hell was the Canadian support system that we pay so much taxes for? This is really beginning to look bad for Mexico and the Canadian government. This is really bullshit. Well done for Mr. Waage for telling the story. Its time to bring Brenda back home. Final Answer!
Update March 28/2008 Just listened to a live phone interview with Brenda Martin and CTV News Anchor Kate Wheeler. Kate is excellent and asked some direct questions to investigate the points Foreign Affairs had made in an obvious attempt to practice a bit of CYA. Brenda had the ring of truth to her comments and at the end thanked Canadians for their support. Given that the poor woman is at her wits end and under medication I thought her thank you was most heartfelt and I think we should all appreciate it and try even harder to obtain her release. Clearly Brenda is in a desperate situation in the jail and she needs to defend herself and is doing so. Its good to see a bit of traditional Canadian backbone there even when the chips are down. Well done to Ms Wheeler for an excellent interview and good luck to Brenda we are on your side. I see that the Canadian govt has been more active on the case lately but any effort expended on CYA activities could be better spent on getting a result in my opinion.
Update March 28/08 Just watched Mike Duffy Live and the Martin case is really heating up. As it should. Canadians are starting to focus in on it and see the ridiculous situation that Ms. Martin is in. A savebrendafund.ca website has been started up and donations are being accepted. A demonstration is being held on Parliament Hill on Saturday. Foreign Affairs is is full panic mode as they try and explain why this situation is still existing and they have really screwed up by releasing private information in an attempt to protect their own interests and jobs. The Privacy Commissioner has opened a file on the case so its going to hit the fan now.
On the good side it looks like our system in Canada does work and when something gets out of wack as it clearly is here there are forces within our society to bring the ship of state back on an even keel. The entire focus here now needs to be on getting Brenda back to Canada. After that we can nail those responsible for allowing this situation to get to this point. And there are other issues here too as mentioned on this webpage.
Update March 29/08 When you step back and look at this process developing you can't help but notice the tendency of some to express an opinion based completely on personal bias and with no factual references. In a free society it is perfectly fine to express an opinion. But when you do you open yourself up to the opinion of others. You can prove yourself to be an undeniable idiot quite easily. So what are seeing is some morons expressing the opinion that Ms Martin should stay in jail because she deserves it, because she is an an older woman, because they are bored with the story and because they just don't understand or care about it. Interesting commentary on the intelligence of some very stupid people. Luckily these people (we have all seen them) are usually kept away from any positions of consequence or authority in our society. But they do have the vote although often they never exercise it. And they can express their opinions. They do phone in to talk shows and post things on the internet. So ...what do you do when you live in a shoe? If you look in the mirror and somebody like this fella looks back you know you are one of them!
Update March 30/08 I just reviewed the entire page here and was surprised at how dumb I was as this was first developing. The problem is that there is conflicting information out there. People with vested interests -Canadian Foreign Affairs and the Mexican Government and now opposition Political parties are expressing opinions and shoveling out information to support their opinions which are then repeated in the media. But where is the reality here?
One really needs to critically analyze information before accepting it as the truth. In this case its pretty obvious that Brenda Martin should be back in Canada. Its also pretty obvious that mistakes have been made both by the Mexican Judicial system and the Canadian Foreign Affairs department.
note to self - try not to be so stupid in the future -listen then think.
Update April 9/08 There are reports coming out of Mexico that the problem will be solved now in a matter of weeks. Things are now looking up. Apparently the pressure from Foreign Affairs and the Canadian government and citizens is having an impact which is a good thing. It would be very nice if this story had a happy ending.
This story has been a learning experience for me. I see now how challenging it is for reporters to get the accurate story of what is going on. I see that it takes time to research things. That despite the best attempts of people that some things get out of control and can stay that way for years. That the great majority of Canadians are fair minded decent types of people. That the Mexicans are a friendly people with a different judicial system than what we have. That when things do go bad all those involved try to protect their positions. It more or less all comes down to this:
What do you do when you live in a shoe?
Update April 15/08 Yesterday Ms. Martin had her day in court and things do look promising at this time. I reviewed the CBC.ca article about her and read over a few of the comments readers had posted. I was struck by the stupidity of several of the posters. Its mind boggling how stupid some people are. And how mean they can be due to their stupidity. In fact I have done a page on Canadian Stupidity and it certainly is borne out by these people. Its becoming very clear to me what our elected reps, front line retail staff, and correspondents need to put up with while doing their jobs and making the country work. These stupid people some of them even well educated are everywhere doing and saying stupid things.
Now dress me up and call me stupid but I think that anyone that takes the time to do the research and educate themselves about the Martin case will come to the same conclusion that I did. She needs to come back to Canada now. The stupid people won't come to that conclusion because they are stupid. And they will always be stupid. Its just the way life is. Have any of you have gone thru your normal days without encountering stupid people? I rest my case.
Update April 18, 2008 It now looks like the Judge's verdict in the Martin case will come down on tuesday April 22/2008 although there had been expectations that the verdict would be announced today.
Actually I am concerned. Seeing how this case developed it is clear to me that Brenda Martin is innocent. She was the cook. Period. But now we have a big complication.
If Brenda is judged innocent then there will be a huge problem for the Canadian government and the Minister of Foreign Affairs because then the problem will be that a Canadian was allowed to be in a Mexican jail for over two years and they were unable to do much about it. That would be completely unacceptable to all Canadians. I think its obvious they are doing something about it now. But two years is a long time. So it would be to the Canadian governments advantage that Ms. Martin be found guilty of something -anything so that she could be repatriated to Canada and the Canadian government instead of loosing points would gain points for making that happen. Now for the second part of the problem.
From Mexico's viewpoint if they held an innocent women in jail for over two years their system would look very bad. There may even be some form of legal liability there - I am not a lawyer but it would seem there might be. So it would be to great advantage of the Mexicans too if Ms. Martin was found guilty of something -anything and then they expedited her repatriation to Canada and then gained some points for assisting with that. There is one more factor here.
Since it certainly appears that Ms. Martin is indeed completely innocent here there would be a natural and understandable tendency on her part to reject any jail time because she is in fact innocent.
Folks we are in a pickle.
Unless there are new facts here which have not come to light yet, the right thing to do is for the Mexican Judge to find that Ms. Martin is innocent. Anything else would leave a cloud of suspicion hanging over the Mexican judicial system. The Government of Canada should send the Foreign Affairs Minister on an Air Force transport to personally pick up Ms. Martin. This will cost a few bucks but it will send a message to all that Canada will stand up for Canadians anywhere in the world.
From what I can determine Ms. Martin is just an average Canadian. Nobody special. She isn't rich or connected to the powerful or representative of a special interest group. She just got into a bad situation in a foreign country that is one of our friends in the world and somehow she fell through the cracks. The Mexicans are not an evil society from everything I have heard they are decent people. So are Canadians. Lots of Canadians live in and visit Mexico and are happy doing so. Many Mexicans visit Canada and are welcome here.
Its well past the due date for getting Brenda back home in Canada. If the political types try putting a spin on this situation we will un-spin it here. So we wait. Until Tuesday.
Update April 22/2008 The verdict is out. The Mexican Judge says Brenda Martin is guilty and sentences her to a fine of 38,000 pesos and five years in jail. At this time there has been no comment from Canada (16:51 EST)
Now this is going to cause a huge amount of problems. As a general rule Canadians don't get mad- we get even. Unfortunately, in certain situations we get mad and get even too and you don't want to be on the other side when that happens. We will just need to wait a bit to see what happens here.
Up to today, millions of Canadians were building a level of awareness on the Brenda Martin case specifically Brenda herself and the unfortunate and very sad and unfair situation she is in. But now that level of awareness is spreading to other factors in the case specifically the problems with the Mexican Justice system. And that will be a very expensive cost to Mexico not only in perceptions of their justice system but in perceptions as their very character as a country. The level of perception is also spreading to an understanding of the degree to which the Canadian government will or in this case has not assisted a Canadian who needs help in a foreign country.
Some of these changes will be subtle and others will be more direct. I think this is a pivotal moment in the relationship between Canada and Mexico. This represents a failure of the Conservative Government to deal with this situation and this is a very sad day.
So it will be interesting to see what the government has to say and what they will do. But so far it looks like the events are tracking right down my predictions on April 18th/08
Update April 27/2008 I checked out some of the comments on CBC.ca from readers concerning the Brenda Martin case. Further proof for my theory that 25 percent of the Canadian population is just plain stupid. The comments were biased, not based on any facts, immature, cruel, sarcastic, and just plain mean. I can only guess that these poor people making these comments are suffering from personality disorders, alcoholism, drug use and stupidity. That's a tough combination to go through life with. And its also very tough for people who actually try and do things like solve problems.
Our government has been working very hard in the last few months to get Ms. Martin back to Canada. They deserve some credit or at least some acknowledgement for that effort. But instead the stupid people spew forth a stream of invective commenting on the fact the Govt of Canada paid the fine (as a loan) for Ms. Martin. They also comment on the fact that Ms. Martin is a convicted criminal now but forget to mention the system that decided this was completely corrupt and attempting to protect itself. All the evidence points to the fact that Ms. Martin was guilty of being the cook for ten months and knew nothing about the background of the business her employer Mr. Waage engaged in. Ms. Martin is in fact a victim not a criminal.
We also have the Liberal Party of Canada attempting to gain political points from the Martin case. This is disgusting and just shows the extremely poor leadership shown by Mr. Dion. I do feel sorry for the man but he seems intent on digging his own hole to fall into. The ironic thing is that one of his points is that Mr. Harper is the Devil incarnate and has secret agendas to make Canada a country without a heart while he on his white steed will make nice with everyone. In the meantime is is spreading bullshit a foot thick wherever he trods.
LINKS
SaveBrendaFund.ca The official website set up to help Brenda Martin.
Banderas News An excellent website which gives you the flavor of Puerto Vallarta. Lots of info and local news. Also interesting info on living there and Mexican real estate etc. etc. Puerto Vallarta was the headquarters for the Waage internet scam operation.
THE WANTED AND THE UNWANTED Roger Harrison's book on the Waage case. A first hand story of what went on. Necessary reading for anyone trying to sort all this out.( Its on my reading list too!)
National Post article about the Secretary for Foreign Affairs Helena Guergis. I am beginning to see why this situation got to where it is today. But is it all her fault? What did the civil servants do? This is only a fraction of the story.
