Canadians Rally for Martin's Release
 Elisabeth Johns - Sun Media
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| | A tearful Brenda Martin spoke by telephone to a group of supporters gathered on Parliament Hill on Saturday. | | |
Ottawa - Standing on Parliament Hill, Marjorie Bletcher held up a cellphone so that a small group of protesters rallying for her daughter, Brenda Martin, could hear her words.
"I miss you, Mommy," Martin said from her Mexican jail cell. "I need to see you."
Bletcher, 70, and her husband, Bill, 83, urged Canadians to write or e-mail their MPs to influence the government to help bring their daughter home.
Martin, 51, of Trenton, has been languishing in prison for over two years, charged in a fraud scheme masterminded by her former boss, who's in jail.
That boss, Alyn Waage, said in an affidavit that Martin, his former chef, knew nothing of the scams.
PRAYS FOR RELEASE
Between sobs, Bletcher told her daughter to "hold on." She said she prays that they'll soon be reunited.
Bletcher has never been to see the jail that houses her daughter, nor the small cell she shares with nearly a dozen other women.
"I don't think I could ever stand to see her like that," she said.
Cheryl Everall and Kimberly Kim, two Thunder Bay women whom Mexican authorities named as suspects in the 2006 murders of Woodbridge couple Dominic and Nancy Ianiero, spoke in support.
"We stand before you as examples of what Brenda Martin is going through," said Everall.
NDP MP Paul Dewar and Liberal MP Dan McTeague were also at the rally.
Martin Speaks to Supporters
Matthew Jay - Canwest News
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Ottawa - A tearful Brenda Martin spoke by telephone to a group of supporters gathered on Parliament Hill on Saturday, thanking them for taking up her cause while she is locked up in a Mexican jail.
"Thank you so much, everybody, for doing what you're doing for me," Martin said. "It means so much to me, you can't imagine how much this means to me."
"Without all of you supporting me, I don't know what I'd be doing." Martin called her friend Debra Tieleman's cellphone and the call was amplified by a public address system so it could be heard by the crowd of about 50 people who attended the rally.
The native of Trenton, Ont., has repeatedly threatened to kill herself if she isn't soon released, and her desperate pleas for help have echoed through news reports across the country.
The crowd of Martin supporters also heard Saturday from a Conservative MP who defended the government's role in efforts to free the Canadian woman.
Rick Norlock, a Conservative MP who represents Martin's Trenton riding of Northumberland West-Quinte, said the government wants to see a resolution to the situation, but he said it would not interfere in the Mexican legal process.
"(But) the Canadian government cannot and will not interfere in another nation's court process, no more than we would appreciate them doing that here," he said. "Brenda's situation continues to be a priority with me and a priority with the government of Canada," he said.
Martin was also able to speak Saturday with her mother, Marjorie Bletcher, who made the journey from Trenton, Ont., to attend the event.
Bletcher, who has recently been diagnosed with a brain tumour, spoke briefly to the crowd and urged the government to come to her daughter's aid.
"Please help her, just help," she said.
The organizer of the event, former Liberal MP Paul Macklin, founder of the Save Brenda Fund, said he hoped the rally would raise public awareness of Martin's plight and keep the issue high on the government's list of priorities. |
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News from Around the Americas | March 2008 
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