Excited' to be out of Mexico, she thanks Canadians on way to Kitchener jail, hopes for quick release
May 02, 2008 04:30 AM
Joanna Smith
Ottawa Bureau
OTTAWA–Brenda Martin is finally home, or as close as she can get as she nears the end of an international nightmare that kept her in a Mexican prison for more than two years.
Martin, 51, landed at the Region of Waterloo International Airport in Breslau, Ont. around 6 p.m. yesterday in the custody of officials from the Correctional Service of Canada. She was immediately taken to the Grand Valley Institution for Women in Kitchener.
A spokesperson for Public Safety Minister Stockwell Day said in an email that Martin is eligible for an accelerated parole review – meaning she could be freed within weeks or months.
Martin's mother, Marjorie Bletcher, 69, heard the long-awaited news on television.
"I'm thrilled she's going to come back to Canada, even if she had to go into prison for a while," Bletcher said from her home in Trenton. "I'm sure it's going to be a pleasant surprise compared to what she has been through in Mexico."
Bletcher said she's relieved her daughter will get medical and psychiatric help she needs after being put on suicide watch in a women's prison near Guadalajara.
The fact that Martin's case became highly politicized was underscored by a visit to Bletcher's home by Liberal MP and consular affairs critic Dan McTeague.
"I'm relieved like everyone else that this issue has come to a conclusion," said McTeague (Pickering-Scarborough East).
"In the care of Canadian officials I'm sure she'll get the attention that she so clearly needs. The fact that it took this long was certainly something that didn't go unnoticed for most Canadians and it was only when we got the press heavily involved did things start to move."
Deb Tieleman, who led a campaign to get her childhood friend Martin out of Mexico, spoke with her by phone after she landed."She sounded like a totally different person," she said. "She was so happy and so excited."
Tieleman said Martin thanked Canadians for supporting the campaign to bring her home.
"This is the most exciting thing, (for her) to land in Canada," Tieleman said Martin told her.
Martin's Mexican lawyer Guillermo Cruz Rico said Martin could be eligible for full parole since she spent two years in prison before being found guilty last week of knowingly accepting illicit funds and being sentenced to five years. But, he added, that decision rests with Canada's National Parole Board.
"The Correctional Service of Canada is going to produce a recommendation to the parole board and it is the parole board who is in charge of deciding if Brenda has to serve time here in Canada or not," Cruz Rico said yesterday.
Day's spokesperson said he and Foreign Affairs Minister Maxime Bernier are happy with the outcome.
"Ministers Day and Bernier are pleased that the transfer has been processed in a timely manner and that Ms. Martin is now back in Canada," Mélisa Leclerc wrote in the email.
If Martin is denied speedy release, renowned defence lawyer Eddie Greenspan plans to step in.
"If the government intends to somehow allow this case to get caught up in bureaucratic red tape, then I will become involved," Greenspan said from his Toronto office yesterday.
Accelerated parole review permits offenders to apply for release after serving one-sixth of their sentence. Non-violent offenders who have not previously served a federal sentence (two years or more) are eligible, Leclerc wrote in an email.
Martin applied for a transfer to Canada after a Mexican judge found her guilty of accepting funds in connection with a $60 million online investment scheme masterminded by her ex-boss Alyn Richard Waage, for whom she worked briefly as a cook.
She was sentenced to five more years without parole and fined 35,800 pesos – about $3,680 Canadian – after more than two years behind bars following her February 2006 arrest.
Waage, serving a 10-year sentence in a U.S. prison for the Ponzi scheme that bilked 15,000 investors between 1999 and 2001, has signed sworn testimony that Martin had no knowledge of his scheme.
Tieleman became optimistic that Martin would soon be home after Conservative MP Jason Kenney, the secretary of state for multiculturalism, flew to Guadalajara last week for the second time to help expedite the process.
"I was confident she would come home this week," Tieleman said.
Martin's father Tom Martin, 72, said from his home in Surrey, B.C., that his daughter's relatives there were ecstatic.
"The whole family here is jumping up and down," he said yesterday.
One of the few benefits of Brenda Martin's ordeal is that it helped her reconnect with her father, whom she and her mother had been led to believe died about 30 years ago.
Tom Martin, who split with Brenda's mother when Brenda was a baby, read about her case in a local newspaper and got in contact.
Brenda Martin lands back on Canadian soil
Excited' to be out of Mexico, she thanks Canadians on way to Kitchener jail, hopes for quick release
May 02, 2008 04:30 AM
Joanna Smith
Ottawa Bureau
OTTAWA–Brenda Martin is finally home, or as close as she can get as she nears the end of an international nightmare that kept her in a Mexican prison for more than two years.
Martin, 51, landed at the Region of Waterloo International Airport in Breslau, Ont. around 6 p.m. yesterday in the custody of officials from the Correctional Service of Canada. She was immediately taken to the Grand Valley Institution for Women in Kitchener.
A spokesperson for Public Safety Minister Stockwell Day said in an email that Martin is eligible for an accelerated parole review – meaning she could be freed within weeks or months.
Martin's mother, Marjorie Bletcher, 69, heard the long-awaited news on television.
"I'm thrilled she's going to come back to Canada, even if she had to go into prison for a while," Bletcher said from her home in Trenton. "I'm sure it's going to be a pleasant surprise compared to what she has been through in Mexico."
Bletcher said she's relieved her daughter will get medical and psychiatric help she needs after being put on suicide watch in a women's prison near Guadalajara.
The fact that Martin's case became highly politicized was underscored by a visit to Bletcher's home by Liberal MP and consular affairs critic Dan McTeague.
"I'm relieved like everyone else that this issue has come to a conclusion," said McTeague (Pickering-Scarborough East).
"In the care of Canadian officials I'm sure she'll get the attention that she so clearly needs. The fact that it took this long was certainly something that didn't go unnoticed for most Canadians and it was only when we got the press heavily involved did things start to move."
Deb Tieleman, who led a campaign to get her childhood friend Martin out of Mexico, spoke with her by phone after she landed."She sounded like a totally different person," she said. "She was so happy and so excited."
Tieleman said Martin thanked Canadians for supporting the campaign to bring her home.
"This is the most exciting thing, (for her) to land in Canada," Tieleman said Martin told her.
Martin's Mexican lawyer Guillermo Cruz Rico said Martin could be eligible for full parole since she spent two years in prison before being found guilty last week of knowingly accepting illicit funds and being sentenced to five years. But, he added, that decision rests with Canada's National Parole Board.
"The Correctional Service of Canada is going to produce a recommendation to the parole board and it is the parole board who is in charge of deciding if Brenda has to serve time here in Canada or not," Cruz Rico said yesterday.
Day's spokesperson said he and Foreign Affairs Minister Maxime Bernier are happy with the outcome.
"Ministers Day and Bernier are pleased that the transfer has been processed in a timely manner and that Ms. Martin is now back in Canada," Mélisa Leclerc wrote in the email.
If Martin is denied speedy release, renowned defence lawyer Eddie Greenspan plans to step in.
"If the government intends to somehow allow this case to get caught up in bureaucratic red tape, then I will become involved," Greenspan said from his Toronto office yesterday.
Accelerated parole review permits offenders to apply for release after serving one-sixth of their sentence. Non-violent offenders who have not previously served a federal sentence (two years or more) are eligible, Leclerc wrote in an email.
Martin applied for a transfer to Canada after a Mexican judge found her guilty of accepting funds in connection with a $60 million online investment scheme masterminded by her ex-boss Alyn Richard Waage, for whom she worked briefly as a cook.
She was sentenced to five more years without parole and fined 35,800 pesos – about $3,680 Canadian – after more than two years behind bars following her February 2006 arrest.
Waage, serving a 10-year sentence in a U.S. prison for the Ponzi scheme that bilked 15,000 investors between 1999 and 2001, has signed sworn testimony that Martin had no knowledge of his scheme.
Tieleman became optimistic that Martin would soon be home after Conservative MP Jason Kenney, the secretary of state for multiculturalism, flew to Guadalajara last week for the second time to help expedite the process.
"I was confident she would come home this week," Tieleman said.
Martin's father Tom Martin, 72, said from his home in Surrey, B.C., that his daughter's relatives there were ecstatic.
"The whole family here is jumping up and down," he said yesterday.
One of the few benefits of Brenda Martin's ordeal is that it helped her reconnect with her father, whom she and her mother had been led to believe died about 30 years ago.
Tom Martin, who split with Brenda's mother when Brenda was a baby, read about her case in a local newspaper and got in contact.
