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 News from Around the Americas | March 2008 
Libs to File Complaint Over Brenda Martin Leak
 Charles Rusnell - Edmonton Journal
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| | Brenda Martin inside the Puente Grande Women's Prison in Guadalajara, Mexico. (Glenn Bradbury) | | |
Edmonton - The Liberals say they will file a complaint with Canada's privacy commissioner over a leaked internal government report that a Canadian woman jailed in Mexico believes was meant to smear her reputation.
The Foreign Affairs document, leaked to Canadian Press in Ottawa, details contacts between the Canadian consulate in Guadalajara and Brenda Martin, who has been imprisoned without trial since Feb. 17, 2006.
The CP story said the report indicated Canadian officials had regularly visited and telephoned Martin during her imprisonment, contrary to claims by her critics.
"It is truly disgusting that phone information involving Foreign Affairs and Brenda Martin has been given to media and is being passed off as some kind of proof that the government has stood up for her," Liberal consular services critic Dan McTeague said.
In an interview from prison Friday, Martin said the document contained false and misleading statements. She wondered why the CP reporter would publish the allegations without first speaking to her, or her lawyer.
"We could have explained everything in there," Martin said. "I am in prison, I can't get out and I am innocent. I have been having a hard time keeping it together physically and mentally. Why would someone purposely try to smear me, to hurt me?"
In a release issued late Thursday, Foreign Affairs said department officials are reviewing where the leaked information may have come from.
Martin's childhood friend, Deb Tieleman, said she has never suggested consular officials didn't phone or visit Martin enough times.
"All we have said is that they didn't do anything to ensure her legal and human rights were respected," said Tieleman, who has led the public campaign to have her friend released. "The number of phone calls and visits is no indication of action."
Tieleman stressed she believes Jason Kenney, who recently assumed responsibility for Martin's file from fellow MP Helena Guergis, is working diligently now and, with the help of Prime Minister Stephen Harper, will get her friend out of prison as soon as possible.
According to CP, the report showed Martin had been "aggressive with fellow inmates."
Martin agreed, but pointed out that although she has yet to be convicted, she is housed with convicted criminals including murderers and many gang members, some of whom are violent.
"I have to watch out for myself every day," Martin said, adding she was beaten up by a gang member who was subsequently segregated. A Journal reporter who visited Martin in prison in January witnessed her being menaced and verbally abused by other inmates on several occasions.
The report also stated Martin repeatedly refused to eat, including her special diet of vegetables and fruit, or work inside the prison, despite special privileges given to her. But it said she ate fries and drank a soda while in the prison hospital.
Martin said she has never refused to work. She has a chronic bowel condition, an ailment that predated her imprisonment, and she has to eat a special diet.
"I can't eat the prison food or I get sick. I eat food I prepare myself and it is from groceries that are brought into the prison for me, just like many other inmates who have food brought in for them. " She flatly denied ever eating fries or drinking soda in the hospital or anywhere else in the prison.
The document states she complained to consular officials about overcrowding and sleeping on a mattress on the floor, but wouldn't transfer dormitories because she would lose access to a refrigerator. Martin said she has had a bed for 20 months and did not want to change dormitories because she would end up sleeping on the floor again. She needs access to the refrigerator because she must eat fresh fruit and vegetables for her diet.
Mexican federal police arrested Martin five years after her former employer, Edmontonian Alyn Waage, was arrested for operating a $60 million Internet-based fraud scheme. Martin worked as a chef for Waage in Puerto Vallarta for 10 months in 2000 and 2001. She was charged with money laundering and being part of a criminal conspiracy. She has maintained her innocence and Waage has sworn a supporting affidavit. He is now serving a 10-year-sentence in a U.S. prison.
crusnell(at)thejournal.canwest.com |
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