TORONTO - The parents of a Canadian woman held in Mexico in connection with an alleged plot involving Moammar Gadhafi's son say they aren't getting much help from Ottawa.
John and Betty MacDonald say the government isn't keeping them in the loop when it comes to their daughter's case.
And the couple says what they have heard isn't encouraging because it suggests Canada "is very limited in what it can do" to help Cynthia Vanier.
Vanier, a mediator based in Mount Forest, Ont., is accused by Mexican authorities of planning to illegally smuggle the late Libyan dictator's son Al-Saadi Gadhafi into Mexico.
She has been held there since Nov. 10 and her lawyer says authorities can continue to detain her without laying charges until Dec. 22.
Vanier denies the allegations and her parents say they believe she is being used as a scapegoat.
"There's more to this," John MacDonald said in an interview Thursday, adding the allegations levelled against his daughter seem straight from a novel.
"We'd like (Ottawa) to put as much pressure as they could on the Mexican government because this whole thing is a total farce," he said.
"You'd think they'd have a little more influence with other governments, but I don't know what we can expect them to do."
A spokesman for Canada's department of foreign affairs said the government is in contact with Mexican authorities and monitoring the situation.
Earlier this month, Mexico's interior minister accused Vanier of masterminding the plot.
Alejandro Poire said the plan to bring Gadhafi to Mexico allegedly involved Vanier, two Mexicans and a Danish suspect, all of whom have been detained.
Gadhafi denied last week he was trying to enter Mexico. He fled Libya earlier this year after the fall of his father's regime and was given refugee status in Niger.
Al-Saadi and other Gadhafi family members have been placed under an asset freeze and travel ban by the U.N. Security Council.
