Second thoughts about the Brenda Martin case

Afternoon Update: Brenda Martin is now calling Tory MPs Jason Kenney and Rick Norlock's visit nothing more than a "dog-and-pony show."

Unbelievable!!! I guess being a politician means that you have to bite your tongue on occasion. Mine would be been severed by now.

Late afternoon update: Dion Slams Harper for inaction on Brenda Martin. Oh pull-eeze!

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Original post:

Last week I was one of the many people feeling outraged about the situation Brenda Martin finds herself in, and I was even asking if we should boycott Mexico. Now I'm starting to rethink that stance.

First of all, as many of my readers had pointed out, choosing to live in Mexico is different from going there for a one week all-inclusive.


Someone who works in 'legal realm' made this very pithy comment at the end of that post:

...I'm struggling in this case with supporting her outside of that, because it's not so cut and dried, and it brings up deeper issues for me with what I think are MORE important concerns regarding Mexico and problems that ACTUAL, "living here" Canadian citizens have had to contend with. And they WERE innocent, without any doubt - I don't believe that all of a sudden HER situation, her threats of suicide if the country doesn't step in, are deserving of Canadian interference, any quicker, or before these decent people receive assistance...


One of your bloggers said "Bottom line, when you travel to another country you have to be prepared to deal with their system, their way. Accept it or stay home" - Another said, "when you live or visit in a foreign country you fall under their laws and justice system. The same as foreign nations fall under ours" Well, she chose to go there. To LIVE there. To me, in chosing what she did, she also chose their government, their laws and their way of life...Like it or not, that also includes their justice system!

Exactly.


Furthermore, this seems to have been played up lately by the media, opposition, and even by Ms. Martin and her supporters as an opportunity for some Harper-bashing.

Nothing is good enough for Brenda Martin (Martin must stand trial):

...During the meeting at the Guadalajara women's prison, Martin said, Kenney also told her that if she is returned to Canada, she will have to serve at least half her sentence in a Canadian prison.

"I told him . . . I am not going back to Canada to go to prison," Martin said...

...Martin said Kenney and the Canadian government have been ineffectual...

In fact, the Post quotes her as saying, "I think they have done nothing, basically..."


Clearly she is working towards shaming the Canadian Government into action, but my impression is that they are doing everything they can, short of abducting her from prison.

If it were me in that situation, I think I'd be trying to go along with the plan, and cling onto that hope of at least getting out of Mexico no matter what the consequences in Canada. I also think that for someone that 'weak' and 'suicidal', she seems to have great presence of mind in her ability to condemn her own country's government.

Sorry if I seem heartless and have offended anyone here, but that's how I'm feeling about it. The Canadian government needs to be doing everything it can, but in the end Brenda Martin chose to live and work in Mexico, and she must have known full well of the primitive and slow-moving legal system there.

It is neither possible nor realistic to expect the Canadian Government to guarantee our Charter Rights in other countries.

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Update: Welcome Jack's Newswatch readers! - (Daily Blogger)

Welcome also to SDA readers! My hits are suddenly going into the stratosphere!!!


I think I may have just found a new favourite blog via one of Kate's readers. Sheila had this very interesting comment at SDA (2:57 p.m.):

I live near Ms. Martin's hometown of Trenton, and we get regular coverage of this in the press.

My thoughts are always, what in the world did she expect going to live in Mexico? I feel sorry for her, but she lost jobs because she drank too much. She left her family. She surrounded herself with unsavory characters. And then she blames everybody else when her life goes horribly wrong...

It's called consequences, folks.

Is this a good idea?

Via National Newswatch - Canada to recognize Kosovo independence: report.

There certainly is a mixed reaction in the comments section of the CTV website!

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Update: It's a done deal - Canada recognizes Kosovo, Serbia recalls envoy.

Time for Canadians to boycott Mexico

I've been watching this Brenda Martin situation with a mixture of confusion, outrage and sympathy for the 51 year old Canadian woman who has been stuck in a Mexican jail for two years, and is now on suicide watch. She has been denied rights that we take for granted in Canada such as a timely trial and not being locked up with convicted criminals while awaiting it (for over two years).

Martin has been charged but not convicted with 'money-laundering', according to Helena Guergis who was interviewed yesterday on MDL. The Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs and International Trade said that Canada doesn't have control over the legal process in a foreign country, although she assures us she is doing everything she can behind the scenes.

Of course, Dan McTeague is taking advantage of the situation to rip into the Government's seeming lack of action (Ivison - It's 'buyer beware going to Mexico):

Both Dan McTeague, the Liberal MP who performed the role of "point man" for Canadians in trouble abroad for the Paul Martin government, and NDP critic Paul Dewar are scathing about Ms. Guergis's performance--criticism that goes far beyond the usual partisan carping.

"This is a so-called Secretary of State who is given to condescending remarks and running away from cameras when she is asked to explain herself," Mr. McTeague said. "She didn't go to the prison when she was only 18 minutes away to see a woman who's been mistreated by a judicial system as random as the weather."

Ms. Guergis cannot be blamed for the Mexican justice system. In fact, the federal government states in large, bold letters on its Web site: "Under Mexican law, you are considered guilty until proven innocent."

But Canadians have a right to expect the government to go to the wall for them if there is a miscarriage of justice as blatant as in the Brenda Martin case.

"Is the government saying that when you go to Mexico 'buyer beware -- we can't help you there?' " asked Mr. Dewar. "I'm not sure I would book a flight to Mexico tomorrow."

Both Ivison and the Post editorial board (Try Brenda Martin or let her go) appear to be advocating for the Prime Minister to step in now.

I'm not going to take a stand on that one since I don't know all the diplomatic machinations that would surround such a move, but I do agree with the Post editorial on this point:

Ordinary Canadians can act, too, by boycotting Mexico as a tourist destination. Ms. Martin's mistreatment -- along with the suspicious deaths of six Canadians in Mexico in the past two years -- makes Mexico an unsafe place for tourists.

Support Brenda Martin by refusing to vacation in Mexico. It will become even more difficult to resist the 'great deal' of an all-inclusive dirt-cheap vacation if prices go down even further, but it's time to take a stand.

Whether innocent or guilty, she is a Canadian and as such deserves our support for justice.

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Update: Joe Warmington weighs in here:

...A court ruling yesterday that will ensure more time in that Guadalajara prison has her loved ones frantic. While CTV's Mike Duffy hinted last night more "muscle" might be coming from federal officials, officially the government of Canada indicated there really is very little it can do. "It's not appropriate to suggest a politician can influence a judge in another country," Helena Guergis, Canada's secretary of state for foreign affairs, said in an interview with Sun Media last night. "Believe me, if I could go down there and take her home I would..."

National Post - Ottawa sends diplomatic note over woman's imprisonment.

Wednesday Update: Peter MacKay on MDL - You cannot take your Charter rights with you when you leave Canada. The Mexican justice system won't tolerate political interference.

Riots in Belgrade

Caveat alerted me to this one - U.S. embassy in Belgrade set on fire. (CTV)

Now what's that you were saying again, Stephane?

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Check out the related CTV video footage at the right on the CTV site, especially the interview with Dusan Batakovic, Serbian ambassador to Canada.

Interesting comments about whether or not Canada should recognize Kosovo's independence the way the U.S. has done, and the way Stephane Dion has declared we should do.

Related - Socialist Gulag: The more I learn about Kosovo...

CTV - Serbia's ambassador tells Ottawa to exercise caution.

CBC - Body found inside Embassy...

Friday Update - Chretien: Canada in tough spot over Kosovo. (CTV)

So much for a peaceful New Year

As I wake up to a picture-perfect morning of freshly fallen snow that coats each tree limb with exquisite white garlands, I am jerked back to harsh reality by several breaking stories on the other side of the world:

CNN - Ministry backtracks on Bhutto sunroof claims

The plot sickens - Bhutto hours from exposing vote-rigging details!!! (Star)



Star - Kenyans seeking refuge in church burned to death.

More at the Daily Dish - Kenya's Tribal Unraveling. (H/T Daimnation!)

Star - U.S. Diplomat shot, killed in Sudan.


But we in Canada aren't free from it either:

Canoe - Gun violence rocks Calgary.
CTV - Slain girl is daughter of T.O. police officers.


Sometimes all you can do is pray.

And be grateful for the small moments of peace and joy that you find in each day.

The elusive dream

There is so much to read and absorb about Benazir Bhutto's assassination, that it is difficult at this point to draw any conclusions or make any comments that wouldn't appear trite.

Personally, I am shocked and saddened by the murder of this very courageous woman, but I do find myself drawn to the question about whether or not true democracy is a viable and realistic goal in a country such as Pakistan.

This debate has been addressed by Jack's Newswatch, George Jonas and Peter Worthington among others.

How can democracy exist among the chaotic turbulence of such strong extremist factions within the country itself? Military rule may be the only path to temporary stability. Ironically, as Jonas pointed out, it was the pressure of the U.S. to end Musharraf's emergency measures that may have contributed directly or indirectly to Bhutto's assassination:

...Pressuring Pakistan to act out America's fascination with democracy is minimally naive. So is forcing Musharraf, who perches precariously at the edge of a precipice, to audition for a speaking part in a psychodrama called "elections" that Western liberals believe are therapeutically efficacious against every conceivable malady in the body politic. Democracy is strong medicine, every bit as miraculous as penicillin, but some cultures, like some patients, are allergic to it. The best medicine won't help allergic patients, and sometimes it might kill them...

What are the answers? Hard to say.

But holding up Western democracy as a panacea to the world's woes may not be a realistic solution.

At best, it is arrogantly simplistic and fails to adequately deal with the insidious cultural and religious realities.

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Update: Pakistan now says Bhutto died of fractured skull - CNEWS

Yahoo - The sunroof killed Bhutto. Tragic.

Stanley Kurtz - Tribes of Terror.