Truemors
Opinion
Barry Artiste, Now Public Contributor
As I reported last week on Brenda Martin's "Trials and Tribulations" first reported in my Opinion on this case. I have been following this Soapbox "One Life to Live" Dramamentary it from it's initial conception to near completion. I sent my story lik to the National Post Ed/Ops piece in response to her constant badgering of the Conservative Governments efforts to release her under trying conditions. I guess National Post Listened.
To date on my original Now Public story posted last week garnered only one single reader response from a Now Public Reader.
It is nice to see Mainstream Media agree with my perception and Opinion and most likely agree with Now Public reader opinions as well, judging by a single comment to my original story.
Based on the above assessment shows interest in her case is waning. Brenda is indeed her own worst enemy, especially when her supporters are constantly in the face of media and government who like Brenda, fail to practise the age old motto of Diplomacy to "Shut the F*ck Up" , when Diplomacy against a Corrupt Government is in play, especially when you are still a prisoner in their country.
Brenda's incessant finger pointing at everyone say one thing and one thing only "When you point accusatory fingers, remember there are three of those accusatory fingers pointing back at you"!
No one forced Brenda to work and live in Mexico, not the Government, not the Mexican Government, anyone who thinks and demands their Rights as a Canadian Citizen be protected when on foreign soil, really isn't astute in world politics.
Though being a Canadian does give you rights in Canada, those rights are not like an American Express Card, where you can take (impose) those rights with you when visiting countries with poor human rights records.
Something not lost on Brenda and her Captors.
A Brenda Martin backlash may be building in the court of public opinion and inside government.
All the sobbing, fuming and complaining were understandable reactions by a traumatized Canadian after spending two years in a Mexican prison waiting for trial on charges of pocketing illicit funds from an Internet pyramid scheme.
But the Ontario cook with a justifiable grudge at being ignored six months ago has become the top prisoner priority in Foreign Affairs, which has a caseload of about 1,000 Canadians imprisoned abroad.
So, enough already.
Ms. Martin went to trial this month, no doubt after diplomatic arm-twisting from Canada. But even they couldn't deliver the innocent verdict she sought. Guilty, declared a Mexican judge. Cue tears and more bitter fury at footdragging Canadian authorities, even while they cut a cheque to cover her $3,500 court fine.
Last week, the Harper government dispatched no-nonsense MP Jason Kenney to expedite her transfer back to Canada.
It's a process than can take nine months if both sides agree, yet Ms. Martin could set a record for speedy departures if she's released this week. Not good enough, fumed Ms. Martin after a meeting with two MPs, the Canadian ambassador and a few embassy officials. She wants a flight home now, wants to be spared the standard handcuffing while in transit and wants parole upon landing.
There's no doubt Ms. Martin's complaints and increasingly erratic behaviour have tarnished the sympathetic image of a mistreated cook locked up on a flimsy pretext and left to rot by her cold-shouldered homeland.
For example, she recently complained about the seizure of her leg-shaving razor, arguably a reasonable removal from a suicidal inmate. Heck, the RCMP took away non-suicidal Karlheinz Schreiber's belt during a police transfer and he didn't complain, even when his pants fell down on national television.
The optics of her plight are difficult to mesh at times. The vividly described horror of a cell filled with a dozen menacing convicts clashes with the photo of a smiling Brenda Martin preparing to hand over her beauty pageant crown as the prison's Senior Queen 2007.
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