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 News from Around the Americas | March 2008 
Harper Says Government Working to Help Martin
 BYLINE
| | Prime Minister Stephen Harper suggested Wednesday that neither he nor Mexican President Felipe Calderon can intervene in the judicial systems of their respective countries. (Reuters/Chris Wattie) | | |
Prime Minister Stephen Harper says his government is working diligently to help a Canadian woman imprisoned in Mexico without trial for more than two years - but he's stressing that Mexico's courts, just like Canada's, are independent.
Harper suggested Wednesday that neither he nor Mexican President Felipe Calderon can intervene in the judicial systems of their respective countries.
"If the president of Mexico called me and demanded I release a Mexican national, I would not be in the position to do that," Harper told reporters in London, Ont.
"We have an independent judicial system," Harper said.
Harper's latest comments come after a newly published poll suggested that the case of the 51-year-old native of Trenton, Ont., could affect Canada's relationship with Mexico if the matter isn't soon resolved.
"If this case drags on and people get the idea that Mexico is not helping to resolve the situation, and if Canada does not do more, it could really hurt bilateral relations in the long run," said Mario Canseco, director of global studies for pollster Angus Reid.
A Toronto Star/Angus Reid poll found 50 per cent of Canadians said they would boycott Mexico for their holidays.
The survey also found 44 per cent of Canadians said they would stop buying Mexican products sold in Canada.
"These numbers are huge," Canseco said.
"What they say to me is that this case is clearly something that Canadians care about."
The Angus Reid poll of 1,045 Canadians was reportedly done Monday and Tuesday. It is considered accurate within three percentage points, 19 times out of 20.
Martin has been imprisoned in Guadalajara since her arrest on Feb. 17, 2006.
She is accused of helping her former employer, Alyn Waage of Edmonton, defraud $60 million from 15,000 victims worldwide through an Internet investment scam.
Martin has maintained her innocence. Waage, who pleaded guilty in 2005 and is serving a 10-year prison sentence in the U.S., has sworn an affidavit saying Martin, his chef, was not involved in the scheme.
Several calls and e-mails to the Mexican embassy in Ottawa seeking response to the poll were not returned.
The survey found 71 per cent of Canadians want Prime Minister Stephen Harper to get personally involved in Martin's case and press for her release based on humanitarian grounds.
Harper said Wednesday the judicial process "is unacceptably slow" and said he recently requested a "full review" of Martin's file.
He said Mexican government officials "at the highest levels" are aware of Canada's concern about her case.
"At the same time, and I'm not trying to make excuses here, I'm just trying to say if a foreign leader called me and asked me to end a judicial process against a citizen, I would be in no position to do that," he said.
"I don't have that kind of authority, our judicial system is independent in this country, and not withstanding our concerns about processes in Mexico, those systems are independent in Mexico as well."
Harper's comments on the case come as Tory MPs Jason Kenney and Rick Norlock are set to visit Martin in prison.
However, Kenney, the Parliamentary Secretary to the prime minister, this week downplayed expectations for a quick resolution.
"It would be unrealistic to the point of irresponsible to suggest that my visit here or anything else that's happened this week is going to result in an immediate release."
Only 20 per cent of those surveyed in the poll said they would trust Foreign Affairs to come to their assistance if they were detained in a foreign country.
crusnell(at)thejournal.canwest.com |
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