Brenda Martin could spend months in jail for parole violation: Corrections

A Canadian woman who was imprisoned in Mexico for two years until the federal government worked for her release may have to spend the next four months in an Ontario jail following an arrest for public intoxication.

Brenda Martin, 53, was taken into police custody late Thursday from a common area of an apartment building in Trenton, Ont. She was taken to nearby Belleville and held in a local jail and later transferred to a provincial facility in Napanee, Ont., according to a news release by the Ontario Provincial Police on Friday.

Martin gained international attention after she was held by Mexican authorities for two years for knowingly accepting money from an $60-million investment fraud run by her former boss, Edmonton native Alyn Waage.

Martin worked as a chef at Waage’s home in the Mexican resort town of Puerto Vallarta for 10 months starting in 2001. Waage, a financial adviser, was arrested in February 2006.

Mexican authorities put Martin in a women’s prison in Guadalajara.

In April 2008, Martin was found guilty, given a five-year prison sentence and ordered to pay a fine of $3,500.

Martin always maintained innocence during her incarceration. In the months leading up to her conviction, she made many public pleas to the federal government to work for her return to Canada due to her health concerns.

She said in prison, she was forced to sleep in a three-metre-by-four-metre cell with 10 other women and a baby.

Her condition – both mental and physical – deteriorated significantly while in prison. Martin was placed on suicide watch and had to cope with addictions to tranquillizers and antidepressants.

With the help of an old friend in Waterloo, Ont., Martin launched a campaign from her prison cell to get out of the Mexican justice system, appealing to then secretary of state for multiculturalism Jason Kenney to work on her release.

After taking up the file in early 2008, and with public outcry and opposition criticism suggesting the federal government mishandled her plight, Kenney was able to get then public safety minister Stockwell Day to sign off on a prisoner transfer for Martin.

Shortly following her sentencing, Martin was returned to Canadian soil on a chartered Challenger airplane, which sparked public outcry because it cost taxpayers more than $80,000.

On her return to Canada, Martin was placed in custody at a Kitchener, Ont., jail and then a few weeks later, on May 9, she was granted parole and moved in with her mother in Trenton, Ont.

She is currently serving a five-year sentence for laundering the proceeds of crime. According to Correctional Service of Canada, Martin was eligible for parole on May 2008, with it scheduled to end in February 2011.

Martin is being held at the Quinte Regional Detention Centre in Napanee, Ont., after her parole was immediately suspended following her arrest.

Correctional Service of Canada spokeswoman Holly Knowles said Martin can spend up to four months at the facility until CSC and the National Parole Board evaluate and review her parole violation.

"Typically speaking, 80 per cent of federal offenders have some form of substance abuse. It’s really all about whether someone can still be managed in the community," said Knowles from Kingston, Ont. "The parole officer can decide to cancel the parole or re-release them. It can get complicated."

She said it can also be decided that prisoners may have to serve their remaining sentence behind bars.

The board had put stricter conditions on Martin in early December prohibiting her from consuming alcohol and attending any drinking establishment. Martin’s other conditions included seeing a psychologist, not to associate with any known criminals and to report all financial records.

Napanee is 215 kilometres east of Toronto.