Mexico, Canada, Held Hostage

Two North American countries held hostage by the imperious histrionics of a woman portraying herself as an innocent bystander in a corrupt scheme that bilked tens of millions of dollars from unsuspecting victims. She may or may not have been involved in the scam that has seen her one-time employer, Alyn Waage, convicted, tried and found guilty of an Internet fraud scheme operated from his Puerto Vallarta, Mexico headquarters, but despite portraying herself as a hapless, helpless victim, Brenda Martin is anything but that.

She knowingly broke the law of a country she entered illegally, by choosing to remain and to be employed there. When she was employed by Mr. Waage as the cook in his villa, she locked horns with his elderly mother, causing bad feelings which resulted in her dismissal after less than a year of employment. This is such an exceedingly agreeable woman that she could not find it in character to extend respect and a politely acquiescing manner to an older woman. She is obviously accustomed to having her way, brooking no interference.

Or perhaps not; the entire story has never quite been revealed, just tantalizing little snippets that do not paint a picture of innocence. Her extremely generous $25,000 severance, representing a year's salary as a parting gift on dismissal saw her investing ten thousand of that in her former employer's Ponzi scheme that left 15,000 investors around the world $60-million poorer. When Mexican authorities arrested Brenda Martin she was charged with participating in the criminal conspiracy of her past employer; knowingly accepting illicit funds.

Post-arrest and incarceration Brenda Martin was held for two years without trial. A not-unknown occurrence even in countries like Canada, but one which she herself was partly the engineer thereof as a result of her own legal machinations. She interfered with legal proceedings, claimed not to have been seen by Foreign Affairs consular representatives during her imprisonment, and excoriated the government of Mexico and its unjust and unfair legal system. She skillfully exploited the concern and compassion of fellow Canadians with her manipulative histrionics.

Her case quickly became a notorious one, demonstrating yet again how badly Canadians fare as unwitting tourists in Mexico, trusting and open-minded, only to be assailed time and again by the reality that recounted fairly dreadful instances where Canadian tourists met untimely ends through a series of criminal misadventures. None of which has given Canadians pause to reconsider their holiday trips to Mexico. Tourists seeking sun and sand and exotic landscapes flock to the country, while at the same time, decrying Mexican corruption.

Brenda Martin has, despite the anguished persona placed before the cameras turned her way, been having a whale of a time. She adores all the media attention. She relishes the public concern in Canada being evinced by fellow Canadians extending their compassionate concern for her misfortune. She is a self-centred, egotistical woman whose stock in trade is innocence. Her thespian ability to portray herself as a poor defenceless woman victimized by a cruel justice system in a nasty country has played well to her audience.

She has adeptly manipulated the political card, for the public outcry of outrage at the dreadful situation in a Mexican jail of a purportedly innocent Canadian woman who just happened to stumble innocently into a den of criminal activity, has alerted the Government of Canada that they have a bit of a public relations crisis. In aid of handling this crisis, top-echelon public servants and elected Members of Parliament have been scrambling to pay due obeisance to this woman's hysterics.

Brenda Martin's mother, Marjorie Bletcher's tears match those of her daughter's, and truly it's a pitiable situation that only the hardest of hearts would not respond to. Mexico's reputation is being besmirched, their independent judiciary, their criminal justice system, their customs and traditions, their hospitality and generosity as hosts blackened, as Brenda Martin screams in dismay at her sentencing, and predictably faints. Her sentence and her fine have "devastated" this poor woman.

Her friend and supporter, Deb Tieleman shouts "This is incredible. There is no justice in this country. There was never any evidence against Brenda Martin." Fear not, Canada's prime minister will again earnestly confer with his Mexican counterpart. This well-seasoned woman who loves dressing up, competing for attention, performing before the camera, giving exclusive interviews from her Guadalajara prison declaiming her innocence, threatening suicide, working herself into a state of agitated self-delusion, will be saved.

She will return to Canada where some means will be legally found to shorten her prison stay here, and returned to the bosom of her family. Where she will remain for a very short time before setting out again to make her mark in the world, but not before placing before the eager media once again her well-practised version of a malignant vendetta against her by a vicious foreign government.