The Other Side To The Brenda Martin Story

When I first heard about the Brenda Martin story in the MSM, I was initially sympathetic towards her case, but the more I dug into the case and the more I researched, I found that there was a second side to this story. Brenda Martin no longer seemed to be a hapless victim, who was unknowingly ignorant of her employer, Alyn Richard Waage’s activities, as she led all of us to believe.

Below is an interesting link from a 2003 article by Charles Rusnel in the Edmonton Journal.

http://www.thewantednovel.com/edjournal.html

In my post to the Blue like You blog, I noted the following quote from a person going by the pseudo name of “Sandy Smith.” Note, she was a cook and worked for Mr. Waage at the same time Brenda Martin worked for him, she even left at the same time that Brenda Martin left, so it is highly probable that the source was infact Brenda Martin.

"It looked like a friggin parking lot outside that house most days," said Sandy Smith, who asked that her real name not be used. She still lives in Vallarta and fears the Mexican federal police. The Toronto native worked as Waage's chef and lived in Castillo Cristina for 10 months beginning in July 2000.

• If the person being interviewed was Brenda Martin, and she was truly fearful of the Mexican federal police in 2003, why did she choose to remain in Mexico until her arrest in 2006?

• Why was she living illegally in Mexico for 10 years without a visa or work permit?

• Why did she disregard the advise of the Canadian consulate, once she was arrested and choose a lawyer who was not on their list of recommended lawyers? According to the Mexican government, her legal antics, including a constitutional challenge and her changing of her legal representation several times contributed to a delay in the beginning her trial.

"Brenda Kim Martin has chosen to change legal teams for her defence on several occasions," reads the statement on the embassy's Web site. "Consequently, she has been successively represented by different legal teams -- a decision taken by Ms. Martin that has significantly contributed to the delay in her trial."

Mexico blames delays on Brenda Martin

• Why did she continue to associate herself with and correspond with her former boss, Alyn Waage after he was arrested and jailed in California?

• Why did Brenda Martin deposit money that was not her's (Alyn Waage's) in her own bank account and deposit money on behalf of Alyn Waage into other bank accounts? This does not sound like duties she would perform if she was just his "chef"

• If Brenda Martin is suicidal and just want to get home to Canada as fast as possible, why is she bashing the Conservative government, by calling the visit by Conservative MPs Jason Kenney and Rick Norlock a "photo-op" when they and its diplomatic staff have been working behind the scenes with the Mexican government trying to assist her?

• If Brenda Martin is desperate to return to Canada why is she saying that if she is convicted and has the option of serving her jail sentence in Canada that she will not leave Mexico?

"I told him that if I get sentenced to 15 years and I have to serve half my time in prison in Canada I will stay here and kill myself -- that's it. I am not going back to Canada to go to prison," Ms. Martin said.

In the SDA blog, commenter ET asks an interesting series of questions that have so far been overlooked by the MSM

How is it that it's blogs that are coming up with the facts and information, while the MSM is devoting itself only to emotional hysteria totally bereft of facts or instead, creating a fictional scenario? That includes the self-defined and self-esteemed 'informative sites' of Duffy and Newman..and the news of CTV and CBC.

There are many questions:

Why would Brenda Martin be afraid of the Mexican police if she had nothing to do with the scam? If she was concerned, then why didn't she leave Mexico?

Or, was it that she could make more, without a work visa (no taxes) and cheap living costs and easy lifestyle in Mexico (and the weather)?

So, he handed 26,000 to her as settlement for firing her. There are several stories to what happened next.
One, that she re-invested 10,000 of it into his scam company unknown to him. Why?
Two, that he told her to 'take her commission' and forward the rest to a different account.
Laundering.

Why, when she was arrested, didn't she just claim that she was a hired worker in his staff and didn't participate in his scam - Instead, she focused on the arrest process itself; that she didn't have a translator. Small point, but, she's been living there ten years; does she have no knowledge of Spanish?

It is indeed possible that she wasn't part of the scam. It still seems strange that she invested 10,000 of that 26,000 in his company.