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 News from Around the Americas | April 2007 
Women Who Mexican Police Named as Suspects Demand Mackay's Resignation
 Alex Dobrota - Globe and Mail
| | Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister Peter MacKay (AFP/Luis Acosta) |
Ottawa - Two Thunder Bay women who were once identified as suspects in the Mexico slaying of a Woodbridge, Ont., couple are demanding the resignation of Foreign Affairs Minister Peter MacKay, saying he has failed to clear their names.
With the backing of three Liberal MPs, Cheryl Everall and Kimberly Kim held a news conference yesterday where they also said that Helena Guergis, the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, should resign.
The two women want Canada to lodge a formal diplomatic protest with Mexican authorities to dissipate any lingering suspicions.
"It is our belief that ministers MacKay and Guergis have not only failed to defend us, but are themselves displaying a remarkable lack of knowledge of the true facts of the case," Ms. Everall told reporters on Parliament Hill.
The two women returned home from a holiday in Mexico on Feb. 23, 2006, to learn they had been named by Mexican officials as suspected killers of Domenic and Nancy Ianiero.
The couple were found dead in their room at a beachfront resort, their throats slashed.
Mexican authorities immediately implicated the Canadian women who were staying in a nearby room.
Since then, the improbable accusation has not been pursued by Mexican authorities, but neither has it been formally withdrawn.
Mr. MacKay said yesterday he has raised the matter with his Mexican counterpart on several occasions.
"I feel very badly for these women for having been accused and drawn in this very awful case," he told reporters in the foyer of the House of Commons.
A spokesman for Ms. Guergis said she, too, has talked to Mexican officials about the women's complaint.
But Ms. Kim and Ms. Everall say they want nothing short of a diplomatic protest.
They say they have lived in limbo since Mexican authorities implicated them.
"Our children are exposed to that and they ask if Mexico is going to take us away," Ms. Everall said yesterday.
The two women also said the Canadian government has failed to tell them whether their names have been placed on an international no-fly list.
Liberal MPs Dan McTeague, Ken Boshcoff and Bryon Wilfert attended the news conference to show support for the two women.
Mr. Wilfert said he will call on Mr. MacKay to appear in front of the House foreign affairs committee in order to be questioned on this case.
MacKay: Ottawa Pressing Mexico on Ianiero Case
Canadian Press
| | Cheryl Everall (left) and Kimberley Kim, named by Mexican officials as suspects in the grisly slayings of Dominic and Nancy Ianiero last February, attend a news conference on Parliament Hill in Ottawa Wednesday Dec 13, 2006. (CP/Tom Hanson) |
Ottawa - Foreign Affairs Minister Peter MacKay says Ottawa has brought the case of the Ianiero murders to the highest levels of the Mexican government.
His comment came in response to earlier accusations from two Canadian women - whom Mexican authorities regard as prime suspects in the murders - that the federal government has not made a real effort to clear their names.
Speaking after a government caucus meeting, MacKay said Ottawa will continue to press the Mexican government on the issue.
But he said the reality is that it is a domestic police investigation in another country and Canada cannot send its police to investigate.
Cheryl Everall and Kimberley Kim accused MacKay in a news conference of "utter incompetence" and negligence in his handling of their case.
The two single mothers from Thunder Bay, Ont., have been branded professional assassins by the attorney general for the Mexican state of Quintana Roo.
Domenic and Nancy Ianiero's bodies were discovered in their Mexican hotel room on Feb. 20, 2006 with their throats slit.
MacKay said he Mexican authorities has declined his offer of forensic expertise to aid in their investigation. |
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