MAÑANA

The saga of Brenda Martin would bring the toughest of us to tears. That is except if you are Helena Guergis and the Conservative Party of Canada.

Brenda Martin is a woman who is currently sitting in jail near Guadalajara, Mexico charged with money laundering and conspiracy relating to a criminal fraud investigation into her employer years earlier. She has been in jail for two years without trial.

Martin, a 51 year old native of Trenton, Ontario, is currently under suicide watch after the Mexican Federal Court refused this week to dismiss the charges based on a constitutional challenge.

Martin’s lawyer rightfully claimed Martin was interrogated by the Mexican Police without benefit of either a lawyer or interpreter. Even in Mexico they have civil rights and Martin’s were clearly violated.

Martin worked as a chef for a man named Alyn Richard Waage. Waage, who is from Alberta, and was later convicted in the U.S. of being the mastermind behind an Internet-based investment fraud scheme that netted almost $60 million. He fired Martin (at the request of his mother) and gave her a severance package, which Martin used to start a catering business. The federales claim Martin was laundering money. Waage, says Martin did nothing for him other than prepare his meals

Martin was so oblivious to her employers internet scam she actually invested almost half of her severance package in it.

Waage and his co-accused were extradited to the U.S. where they were tried and convicted and are now serving time in stateside correctional facilities. Martin has not been afforded such treatment by the Mexican authorities. The difference is that neither the U.S. nor Canada thinks she did anything they could charge her for and the Mexican charges related only to her alleged laundering of ill gotten gains in Mexico.

Still, the United States has found a way to get a Canadian citizen arrested in Mexico extradited to California.

It should be just as easy for the Canadian government to get Brenda Martin out of Guadalajara.

It might be easy, but the Canadian government has shown little interest in helping Canadians arrested in foreign countries. Helena Guergis, Canada’s secretary of state for foreign affairs, and an incredible oracle of the obvious, told CTV of the Martin case "it's a foreign country and she's in a foreign judicial system."

The Parliamentary Paris Hilton went on to say "Canada does not have any control over the government of Mexico or their judicial process. Any suggestion that a politician can influence a judge's decision is completely inappropriate."

In other words we (the Harper government) have done nothing and we are all out of ideas.

The fact of the matter is that Canada does have options. A formal diplomatic note of protest to the Mexican government, outlining that Brenda Martin's rights have been abused under the international treaty, signed by both countries, would likely be enough to have Martin on the first plane back to Canada.

The note would have to be written by Guergis, and she, apparently, has no interest in signing

The Harper government’s track record on the handling of Canadian nationals jailed in foreign countries is not stellar. Ronald Allen Smith sits on death row in Montana (the Harper Gang have already said they would do nothing to help him) and Mohamed Kohail has been sentenced by a Saudi court to death after a "trial" that took place in nine ten-minute segments. Kohail’s lawyers were excluded from the courtroom for eight of those.

Foreign Affairs Minster Maxime Bernier said of the Kohail case "after the appeal decision, we will evaluate the situation and look at what we can do," adding "it's too soon to presume what the appeal decision would be."

The appeal will be made in front of the same judges that convicted Kohail in the first place. Honestly, what the hell do you think the appeal decision will be?

So Brenda Martin languishes in a Mexican prison, where she has been for the last two years, convicted of nothing and two other Canadians may pay the ultimate price for the glory of Stephen Harper.

How a government can claim they love Canada, but hate Canadians is beyond me.