Ottawa Doles Out $3,500 To Bring Brenda Martin Back From Mexico
Posted April 25, 2008 12:00 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
The federal government dipped into its special fund for troubled Canadians abroad and loaned Brenda Martin money to pay a fine for her fraud conviction in Mexico.
Cabinet minister Jason Kenney says he paid Martin’s fine of 35,800 pesos — roughly C$3,500 — out of the Foreign Affairs department’s distressed Canadian fund before visiting her Friday at a prison near Guadalajara.
“Through the special fund DFAIT has for distressed Canadians abroad, (we) dealt with the penal fine,” said Kenney, speaking from the Canadian consulate in Guadalajara.
“Technically, it’s on a loan basis, so Ms. Martin would be expected in due course to repay Foreign Affairs.”
Paying the fine clears one more hurdle in Martin’s eventual handover to escorts from the Correctional Service of Canada. Canadian officials are now in the midst of translating reams of legal documents from Spanish.
Also speeding along the process is Mexico’s decision to waive a mandatory appeal period for convicted prisoners of five business days before the transfer process can begin.
Kenney and Conservative MP Rick Norlock met with Mexican officials to try to grease the wheels of a complex international legal process.
“Obviously, that’s one of the reasons for my visit, just to underscore once more for them the importance of working with our officials to expedite her transfer,” Kenney said.
“I simply wanted to be here to help, if necessary, smooth out any wrinkles and make sure the process is moving forward quickly.”
But he played down expectations that Martin’s transfer into Canadian custody is imminent.
Earlier in the day, Norlock said Canada can’t simply snap its fingers and bring the jailed woman back home.
He chastised Liberal MP Dan McTeague for accusing the government of dragging its feet and delaying Martin’s transfer to Canadian authorities.
McTeague says Martin spoke Thursday with Mexican officials, who told her they were prepared to release her to Canadian officials.
Not so, says Norlock.
“Mr. McTeague knows better,” he told radio station CJBQ in Belleville, Ont.
“He’s wrong. This can’t be done at the snap of a finger. There is a process. We’re attempting to expedite the process.”
McTeague called the visit to Mexico by Norlock and Kenney a photo opportunity.
“What are they doing there? They don’t need to be there personally to negotiate what…the embassy’s already been instructed…to do,” he said.
“It doesn’t require them, either, to be there to take her home, much as it would be nice to have her arm-in-arm with them.”
Martin’s Toronto-based lawyer, Guillermo Cruz Rico, says he doesn’t know when she’ll be handed over to Canadian authorities.
“Canadian and Mexican officials are working in order to expedite her transfer to Canada. But, at this moment, I haven’t gotten any specific information when that could be happening,” Cruz said.
The former Trenton, Ont., resident has been held at the prison since Mexican authorities arrested her more than two years ago in connection with an Internet fraud scheme run by her ex-boss, Alyn Waage.
Waage masterminded a fraud scheme called the Tri-West Investment Club that bilked 15,000 investors out of nearly US$60 million. He’s now serving out a 10-year sentence at a low-security federal prison in Butner, N.C.
Martin worked as Waage’s personal chef at his posh Puerto Vallarta villa for 10 months until he fired her in early 2001 over disagreements with his mother.
Waage told The Canadian Press last month he paid Martin a year’s severance — roughly $25,000 — because he felt bad about firing her.
Martin subsequently invested $10,000 of the severance pay into Tri-West — money Waage returned to her.
Martin says she thought it was a good investment and didn’t know it was a fraud.
Mexican authorities saw things differently.
They arrested Martin in February 2006 on allegations of money laundering and participating in a criminal conspiracy connected to Waage’s scheme.
Martin steadfastly maintains her innocence. Waage has backed her claim in a sworn affidavit.
A Mexican judge found her guilty this week of involvement in the scam and sentenced her to a minimum of five years in jail along with the fine.
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