OTTAWA - A Canadian woman detained for nearly two years in a Mexican jail once passed the time reading, but now just sleeps the days away.
The crowded prison cell in Guadalajara, Mexico, is a long way from Brenda Martin's former home of Trenton, Ont., but it's the only home she's known for 22 months as she awaits trial for her alleged role in an investment scheme.
There's a slim chance a Mexican judge could release her Monday -- her 51st birthday -- after Toronto lawyer Guillermo Cruz argues on Martin's behalf that his client's rights have been violated.
Under Mexican law, Cruz said, Martin should have been given a translator so she could understand the criminal charges she faces -- money laundering and participating in a criminal conspiracy.
Cruz plans to ask the judge to throw out the charges because Martin was not provided with a proper translator at any stage of the police investigation or the legal process that began last February.
"I think the main issue here is she could not get the right representation in the right time, and she did not get the right assistance by her consulate in Jalisco (province),'' Cruz said in an interview Friday from Mexico City, where he's preparing for the hearing.
There are three possible outcomes Monday, he said. The judge could release Martin, reject Cruz's argument or drop the current charges in favour of lesser ones.
However, with more than 26,000 pages of documents to sort through, Cruz said it will likely take the judge about two months to make a decision.
Martin's criminal trial is on hold until the judge rules on the civil-rights case.
Mexican authorities detained Martin after Alyn Waage, her former boss, was revealed as the mastermind behind an international pyramid scheme that bilked 15,000 investors of nearly US$60 million.
Waage, a former Edmonton resident, hired Martin in 2000 to work as his chef in the Mexican resort town of Puerto Vallarta. He fired Martin after about a year and paid her roughly $24,000 in severance.
Martin invested $10,000 of that severance money in a company operated by Waage, said her longtime friend Debra Tieleman, a company Martin "thought was on the up-and-up.''
Tieleman added that Waage gave the money back because "he knew it was a scam.''
Waage was sentenced in 2005 to 10 years in a U.S. federal prison. He has sworn an affidavit claiming Martin knew nothing of the scheme.
Emilio Goicoechea, Mexico's ambassador to Canada, visited Martin in prison for about an hour last month to verify she was being treated fairly. Goicoechea was not available for comment on Friday.
Cruz, meanwhile, said it took the Canadian consulate in Guadalajara more than 21 months to formally ask the Mexican judge presiding over Martin's criminal case about her.
Canadian trade commissioner Kathryn Aleong wrote in Spanish to judge Luis Nunez Sandoval on Nov. 26, 2007, asking for an update on Martin.
Foreign Affairs did not return calls Friday asking why it took so long for the consulate in Guadalajara to ask about Martin.
However, Helena Guergis, secretary of state for foreign affairs, recently wrote a letter to an eastern Ontario newspaper claiming she had "personally raised Ms. Martin's case directly with senior Mexican officials on several occasions, as did former foreign minister (Peter) MacKay.''
Rick Norlock, Conservative MP for Northumberland-Quinte West, in whose riding Martin once lived, said the Tories have had "several'' discussions with Mexican state and justice officials, noting that Prime Minister Stephen Harper raised the issue with Mexican President Felipe Calderon.
Tieleman, who has made three trips to Mexico in the last month from her home in Waterloo, Ont., said the Canadian government isn't doing enough.
"In my mind, (Guergis) is using Brenda as a political football,'' she said.
Liberal MP Dan McTeague said he has raised Martin's case several times in question period, in committee and with MacKay, but with little response.
"Brenda continues to languish in a Mexican prison. I'd better call it rotting away in a prison,'' McTeague said.
Inside that prison, Tieleman said, Martin shares a 2.7-metre-by-3.7-metre room with 11 other women and a baby. There are three beds.
When Tieleman visits her friend, the two women walk under the palm trees in the prison's fenced courtyard. There, below the looming guard towers on the yellow-and-blue painted walls, Tieleman tries to raise her friend's spirits.
But she's worried about Martin, who she said is deeply despondent and now weighs 94 pounds after losing 40.
"Brenda has absolutely no hope. She really doesn't.''
