Daily Blogger - Thursday, March 20th, 2008
Posted on 20 March 2008 by Jack
Blue Like You | Second thoughts about the Brenda Martin case
Last week I was one of the many people feeling outraged about the situation Brenda Martin finds herself in, and I was even asking if we should boycott Mexico. Now I’m starting to rethink that stance.
First of all, as many of my readers had pointed out, choosing to live in Mexico is different from going there for a one week all-inclusive.
Someone who works in ‘legal realm’ made this very pithy comment at the end of that post:
…I’m struggling in this case with supporting her outside of that, because it’s not so cut and dried, and it brings up deeper issues for me with what I think are MORE important concerns regarding Mexico and problems that ACTUAL, “living here” Canadian citizens have had to contend with. And they WERE innocent, without any doubt - I don’t believe that all of a sudden HER situation, her threats of suicide if the country doesn’t step in, are deserving of Canadian interference, any quicker, or before these decent people receive assistance…
One of your bloggers said “Bottom line, when you travel to another country you have to be prepared to deal with their system, their way. Accept it or stay home” - Another said, “when you live or visit in a foreign country you fall under their laws and justice system. The same as foreign nations fall under ours” Well, she chose to go there. To LIVE there. To me, in chosing what she did, she also chose their government, their laws and their way of life…Like it or not, that also includes their justice system!
Exactly.
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Note: I agree with Joanne and her readers. Martin is so shrill about her problem that she is turning me completely off (as are the media who are feeding off her). As someone noted, there is far more to this situation than we know and until we do “know” we should keep our powder dry. It is also noteworthy that there have been no stories about this guy since March 4th and he’s in a lot more trouble.
Popularity: 24% [?]
March 20th, 2008 at 9:39 am
Thanks for the link, Jack!
Good point about Mohamed Kohail. The public seems to have a short attention span. Perhaps that is enabled by the media and the ‘outrage du jour’.
March 20th, 2008 at 10:20 am
I watched the interview between Seamus O Regan and Brenda Martin’s mother yesterday on Canada AM. I have always been a big fan of Canada AM and watch it every morning. I couldn’t even watch it today. I was completely turned off and disgusted with the Harper bashing.
I get the impression that nothing from the government of Canada will be good enough for Brenda Martin and her family. I am fully expecting her friend Brenda to run for the Liberal party in the next election. I think there is more to this story than we are being told.
March 20th, 2008 at 10:35 am
How many other women have the liberals and media got in their -lets get Harper- plan. Remember the war widow who was supposedly denied a pension who accosted the PM as some public event. Now this woman crying for her daughter, who has refused to return to Canada if she must go to jail. How long has she been in jail-over 2 years, that makes it Paul Martin’s problem.
This mother must not love her daughter as much as she hates the PM, calling this a photo op.
Canadians of all ages must learn, when in another country you are subject to their laws, not the wishy washy Canadian system.
Do the crime, do the time.
The media and the mother have succeeded in turning any sympathy for Ms Martin into disgust.
For all the hate and charges of a bad govt, the opposition must have a lot of faith in PMSH, expecting him to fix all the problems they spent years ignoring, to be fixed overnight.
After we get them all fixed these criers will say, see what we made the govt do, put us back into power so we can steal and cause more problems.
March 20th, 2008 at 10:58 am
I too find this case weird. I find it amazing how the media assumes whatever Ms Martin says is the 100% truth. All these stories about the innocent woman in jail for no reason at all. How do they know? The people around Martin were doing a good job getting her case noticed but they seem to have gone too far now, as can be seen by jack and the other commentators remarks.
Another aspect of this case that I have noticed is the people complaining the loudest in the media are lefties, the ones who believe all cultures are equal. Now their idealism is being tested and they were awfully quick in abandoning their beliefs.
I believe the commentator from the ‘legal realm’ has it exactly right. Martin choose to live there, now she suffers the consequences. I feel sorry for her but that’s about it. I think there are other Canadians being held in prisons around the world who are more deserving of the PM’s attention. It bothers me that all this attention has been focused on Martin, who choose to live and work in Mexico, and now that it’s not working out is bleating to the government to rescue her.
March 20th, 2008 at 11:49 am
I’m glad to see a more critical eye being levelled at this situation. Truthfully, I’ve yet to see evidence about this case that didn’t amount to “how dare one of US end up under THEIR rule”. Well that’s the chance you take when you go to a foreign country - do your homework. Mexico’s presumed-guilty legal system must have surely crossed Brenda’s mind before she moved there to work for an inordinately rich foreigner?
Shot out to Mac on this one - he was the first one I saw look upon the case with scrutiny.
Moreover, PMSH or any other PM only has limited influence in this case. Short of invading Mexico (hahah) or starting an all out trade war, how can he effectively meddle in a foreign justice system? Mexico owes us nothing.
March 20th, 2008 at 2:47 pm
Let’s see if I understand the story correctly.
She chose to live in Mexico and thus accepted their judicial system to live under. Presumably she researched her new home before she moved. BUT, it’s Harper’s fault that it turned out to be a bad choice.
Brenda hired a lawyer there to defend her. Of course it’s Harper’s fault that her pick turned out to be a dud.
It’s Harper’s fault that she’s still in jail because he set up the judicial system there.
It’s Harper’s fault that her mother had to cry and plea on national television (of course with the nudging by the heartless and biased interviewer).
It’s Harper’s fault that he turned the information session he had with the media into photo op. It would have been too callus to issue a press release
When are we going to start teaching our children to take responsibility for their own lives and stop blaming others?
March 20th, 2008 at 7:02 pm
Where were the libs when Cdn. William Sampson was wrongly imprisoned in Saudi Arabia on trumped up murder charges. I can still remember External Affairs rep. Billy Graham falling all over himself trying to explain what HIS government was (or was not doing) to help this Canadian.
And then there was the lieberals screw-up on the Maher Arar Syian caper that eventually cost Canadians millions of tax dollars.