Brenda Martin Case Latest to Strain Relations Between Canada and Mexico

After a two-year legal nightmare in Mexico, Brenda Martin is finally back on Canadian soil, but still faces a criminal record and a long process of psychological recovery. The Edmonton Journal reports that a plane carrying Martin landed in Kitchener, Ontario, this afternoon. Martin was quickly whisked away from a waiting throng of journalists and supporters and taken by Correctional Services Canada to the Grand Valley Institution, a maximum security prison in Kitchener Waterloo where she's expected to remain for two to three weeks before being paroled.

It wasn't the return to Canada supporters had expected. The 51-year-old Martin has become a cause celebre among Canadians since she was arrested in Mexico in February, 2006 on fraud charges. In 2000, Martin had been a personal chef employed by Alyn Waage, a Canadian living in Mexico. While he employed Martin, Waage was running a massive Internet-based pyramid scheme which ultimately bilked some 15,000 investors out of approximately $60 million. Waage was arrested in 2006 and is now serving a ten year sentence in the United States. Mexican authorities believed that Martin was aware of Waage's activities, and arrested her as well. Martin has always maintained she was unaware that Waage's business dealings were in any way illegal.

After her arrest, Martin remained in jail, without trial, for more than two years. Because she was a foreigner, and because of the serious nature of the charges against her, she was ineligible for bail. Her lengthy incarceration caused Martin severe psychological stress. Interviews with Canadian broadcast media showed a woman on the verge of emotional collapse, and Canadian supporters feared she would lapse into mental illness or even commit suicide.The case became increasingly inflammatory in Canada as outraged citizens contacted their Members of Parliament to protest Mexico's treatment of a Canadian citizen, as well as Canada's failure to act. As these MPs began to speak out, pressure rose up the diplomatic chain of command. It now appears that a deal was worked out behind the scenes to get Martin back to Canada while saving face for the Mexican judicial system.

Martin was finally tried in a summary hearing before a judge on April 14. Given what seemed to Canadian observers a very flimsy case against her, supporters expected her to be acquitted and the matter to finally be over. A friend of Martin's even showed up at the delivery of the judge's verdict on April 22 with an airplane ticket, expecting to accompany her home.

However, Martin was convicted. The judge found that she was aware of what Waage was doing, and that the salary she was paid as his chef was illicit proceeds of a fraudulent enterprise. Martin was sentenced to five years without parole, and fined approximately 35,000 pesos (about $3,400 CDN). Even before the verdict, however, there appears to have been an arrangement to expedite a prisoner transfer deal which would get Martin out of Mexico and allow her to serve her sentence in Canada.

That transfer was completed today, and explains why Martin is still in custody instead of simply being returned home to friends and relatives. Under the terms of prisoner transfers, the home country is generally not allowed to simply disregard the findings of a foreign court and release its citizen. Instead, Martin now stands convicted in Canada of money laundering charges. She's expected to be immediately eligible for parole because of the time she served in Mexico prior to her trial. However she will have to remain in custody until parole can be arranged, and will have to appear before a parole board for it to be formally granted.

Martin will continue to have a criminal record, and will have to go through the parole process until her sentence is completed. She will also require extensive therapy to cope with the psychological trauma of her long ordeal. In addition, Martin has reportedly become addicted to tranquilizers during her prison stay, and will require care and treatment for that problem.

The case has clearly strained relations between the two countries. Mexico has long been a popular winter getaway destination for Canadians. But a series of highly publicized incidents have begun to change that.

In 2006, Dominic and Nancy Ianiero, of Woodbridge, Ontario were murdered in their room at a five-star resort near Playa del Carmen. They were there, along with numerous relatives, for their daughter's wedding. Mexican authorities botched the investigation in almost every way possible, and the case rose to the level of an international incident when Mexican president Vicente Fox insisted that the crime had been committed by Canadian enemies of the victims, and not by a Mexican national. The most likely suspect remains a security guard at the resort who disappeared the day after the killings. That suspect has never been located.

In January 2007, 19-year-old Adam DePrisco, also of Woodbridge, was killed in Acapulco. Mexican authorities maintained that DePrisco was the victim of a hit and run accident. But, based on eyewitness accounts, his family insists he was beaten to death outside a nightclub in a fight believed to be over a woman. Once again, there have been no arrests.

The ongoing incidents, and particularly the way in which Mexican authorities respond to them, can only continue to damage Canadian perceptions of Mexico and darken the country's allure as a safe vacation spot. Canadians continue to be outraged over the Martin case, and at least one Member of Parliament (Bill Casey of Nova Scotia) has warned Canadians not to visit Mexico.