Blue Like You

Peter Kormos said it all:

…”The Baltovich story has a very Mexican ring to it, if you will,” Kormos said.

Bentley was evasive when asked about a news report that the Crown had earlier offered Baltovich a one-day jail sentence in return for revealing the location of Bain’s body…

Meanwhile, Deb Tielman seems to have finally learned that you catch more flies with honey than with caustic rhetoric:

“I do believe this is good for Brenda,” she added. “I think to have Jason (Kenney) come and be able to give Brenda some kind of assurance from the government that this is going to be expedited and they can have her home in a couple of weeks will give Brenda something to hold on to.

I could actually get back on board the Brenda bandwagon if this keeps up.

CTV reports that Brenda Martin has been found guilty and gets five years. Her mother is being shown live on Newsnet right now. I feel sorry for her.

Star - No parole.

Update: Martin expected to be moved to Canadian prison soon. (Globe)

Mexico is pulling out all stops to extradite Brenda Martin:

“…Mexico just wants her out of the country as soon as possible…”

Gee, I wonder why?

Latest on Brenda Martin here.

Mike Duffy called Brenda’s wait in prison ‘tragic’ on tonight’s show. Oh pull-eze.

‘Tragic’, Duff? Usually we reserve that for a fallen soldier or a murdered child.

But Craig Oliver made up for that at the end of the show: “I don’t remember a Canadian in trouble abroad who’s had more attention than this woman has. I think she should stop complaining about every ..”

And then Jane interrupted to remind us what a hard time poor Brenda has had.

Funny how CTV didn’t post that clip tonight.

After having had a brief reprieve from the Brenda Martin saga, we see that she’s back in the news today - Brenda Martin in tears at final hearing:

Brenda Martin, held in a Mexican prison for over two years on fraud charges, burst into tears at her final hearing Monday after the judge said he wouldn’t guarantee a ruling in her case by Friday.

The Mexican judge apparently wasn’t moved by her tears and maintains that he is entitled to 30 business days to make a decision.

The evidence against her seems to be circumstantial at best.

So anyway, I’m just curious. Have your feelings about this situation changed at all? Do you feel more sympathetic now, or less, or no change?

The strategy of Brenda Martin and her supporters (including MSM and the LPC) has been to fire humiliating and scornful salvos at the Canadian Government, and hope that somehow this will expedite Martin’s release from Mexican prison.

Leaving the rationale of the plan aside, one has to wonder if it’s actually working. This CTV report states that while ‘hundreds’ of supporters were expected, only four dozen actually showed up.

Some of those ‘four dozen’ were undoubtedly Liberal MPs seeking to take advantage of the situation. Liberal Paul Macklin obviously feels that size doesn’t matter:

“I’ve been on Parliament Hill for many years as an MP and I will say today was the most emotional day I’ve ever spent on the Hill,” Macklin, a former Liberal MP for the riding of Northumberland-Quinte West in Ontario, told Newsnet.

“To hear (Martin) thank everyone across this country was just amazing for all of us.”

Well, I’m sure it was moving for family and friends - and for opposition MPs hoping to exploit it as a wedge issue.

However, one organizer justified the weak turnout with this statement: “The problem with rallies like this sometimes is that the people interested are not living in the city where the rally takes place.”

Uh-huh. Going by that logic, then the only rallies that attract large support on the Hill are those that appeal to the local folks?

National Post reader Roy Weston may have nailed it although he didn’t specifically mention Brenda Martin’s name:

…It’s incumbent upon travellers, not the government, to know what their rights are when they travel to another country. If they don’t like their chances, should they be arrested, then they shouldn’t go abroad. Canadian representatives can’t just wave a magic wand and free people from jail, and all the teary-eyed blubbering by those who have been arrested is not going to change that…

Wake up people! The Nanny State ends at our borders.

Liberal MP Dan McTeague does seem to like being in the limelight, and some of his causes are worthwhile.

However, yesterday he stated that “Foreign Affairs violated Brenda Martin’s privacy rights by allegedly leaking a department report” according to Canadian Press.

Well, as my insightful reader Gabby pointed out in comments, this is all a bit rich:

So now Ms. Martin’s privacy rights have been violated?
Who splashed her story all over the MSM - press, TV, radio?
Who made sure her name was on practically every news report?
And which parties continuosly accuse the government of secrecy, lack of transparency, and unwillingness to release documents under the freedom of information requests?
So now that the government releases information, it’s a violation of Ms. Martin’s privacy?
A little consistency would be welcome.

Oh! the hypocrisy!

So, if you’re concerned about privacy rights being violated, Mr. McTeague, how about shining a light on this abuse as reported in Jonathan Kay’s excellent Post editorial this morning - A disaster for Canada’s Human Rights Commission:

Privacy is another concept that the HRC seems to find confusing. The most scandalous disclosure to emerge on Tuesday involved the manner by which investigators logged on to Lemire’s Web site.

In what appears to be a ham-fisted attempt to avoid revealing the commission’s IP address, they tapped into the unsecured wi-firouter of a 26-year-old Ottawa woman who lived near the commission’s 344 Slater St. headquarters. At Tuesday’s hearing, a Bell Canada employee read out the woman’s name, address and phone number to shocked audience members. A National Post reporter contacted the woman and found that she’d never heard of Lemire, Steacy, or his investigations. Unless she is secretly working undercover for Steacy, it appears that the commission cynically invaded the privacy of an innocent citizen in order to pursue an obscure Web-trawling vendetta; and then caused her name to be read out to the Canadian public, thereby identifying her as an unwitting conduit to neo-Nazi Web sites. One likes to imagine that the privacy commissioner will be having a chat with Dean et al. in coming days.

This is absolutely horrifying. Just think about it. The HRC is trolling and baiting using an innocent citizen’s IP address, and then her name gets dragged into this abysmal, taxpayer-funded sinkhole of a Kangaroo Court!

To be fair to Dan McTeague, he has already come out in support of fellow Liberal MP Dr. Keith Martin’s private member’s bill M - 446. (Note how he says there is a “reversal of the presumption of innocence” in the clip. How ironic considering the Martin case where we talk about Mexico’s horrible justice system!!)

I think we need Dan McTeague’s help in getting this issue front and centre in the media.

Every citizen in Canada should be warned about how Free Speech is not given ‘any value’ by HRC’s Dean Steacy.

Because when you think about it, aren’t even Canadians like Brenda Martin more threatened by lack of free speech than anything else?

Privacy czar will probe Brenda Martin report leak - CTV.

‘Dozens’ of people at rally - Globe

Well, in any case you may want to reconsider your trip after reading this.

- On the other hand, I don’t blame you for wanting to get a little sun.

(Update - A reader informs me the meeting will be in Ottawa. Well, that should help reduce his carbon footprint.)

On Monday the Canadian Press released a story stating that Alyn Waage said that Brenda Martin advised him by letter of a demand by Mexican officials for $500,000 to be able to get out of prison.

Funny thing is, it’s not true according to Brenda Martin herself who supposedly told Charles Rusnell, who then mentioned it on Tuesday’s Charles Adler show.

You can hear it yourself by checking out CJOB’s audio vault, and selecting Tuesday, March 25 at around the 1:40 p.m. mark. (H/T Orville who’s been right on top of this story, and Peter 12 in comments at DMB)

Rusnell clearly says on the tape that Brenda told him that she has never been asked directly to pay a bribe… That it doesn’t work that way anyhow - it’s all done through a law firm.

So there may be a nuance of truth somewhere along the line, but the con man’s version of the story is shaky at best. So where’s the update, CP?

Meanwhile, a couple of MP’s are still perplexed by the $500,000 bribe allegation.

Why is it so hard to get the facts, and why weren’t Waage’s allegations verified before the story was released?

If I wanted fiction, I’d have bought a novel.

There is just no end to the complexities of the Brenda Martin story, and half the problem is trying to sort out the fact from the fiction.

Last night on CTV’s The National they played up some breaking news about having gained access to some kind of bank records showing Brenda Martin’s ‘investment’ and a sum of nearly that amount refunded back to her afterwards by Alyn Waage.

I have to ask myself, so what?

Waage has allegedly declared that Brenda wouldn’t be released until a bribe was paid, but Orville at Dust My Broom has confirmation that Brenda denies this.

Charles Rusnell reports that Martin supporters say that Mexico could simply expel Martin, but the CTV story said no - that the Mexican authorities say it’s too late for that.

So where does the truth lie?

Claire Hoy probably has the best take on this to date:

…But there comes a point - at least for me - where the constant carping and the serial whining about your plight changes from legitimate concerns to an annoying sense of absolute entitlement.

Let’s look at the reality here. The main reason her case has dragged on for two years is because she has complicated it, turning it into a constitutional matter before the Mexican courts. That takes time there just as it would here.

And while there is much screaming in Ottawa - where the Liberals, wouldn’t you know, are trying to blame the government for Martin’s plight - the fact is that a two-year wait for a trial is not unusual in Canada, either. Indeed, two years is considered rather swift in legal circles, particularly when it involves serious and/or complicated matters.

Yet we as Canadians, or at least many of us - along with most of the media - have recently adopted the position that if a Canadian is in jail outside the country there’s automatically an injustice being done - to the Canadian.

Meanwhile, MP Rick Norlock gives us his side of the story, saying that it may be a matter of only weeks rather than months before this is resolved. So progress is being made - just not fast enough for Brenda or the opposition parties.

I sincerely hope that once Brenda Martin is back on Canadian soil that she shows some kind of gratitude for the efforts being made on her behalf.

And I look forward to hearing the true story someday.