Canada's privacy commissioner will investigate to see if Brenda Martin's privacy was violated by the leak of a government report to the media.
Martin, the Canadian woman who is imprisoned in Mexico, isn't refuting the contents of the leaked document that says she's had regular contact with Canadian officials. That seems to counter her suggestion that she was initially left to linger in jail without much help from Ottawa.
Martin says the government has violated her privacy in sharing that information with the media.
In a telephone interview with Â鶹´«Ã½net on Friday, Martin said the government released the document solely to divert attention from its unwillingness to intervene in her case. She has been held in a Mexican jail for more than two years without a trial.
"I find it horrendous that my privacy would be breached in an attempt to smear my name," said Martin, who blamed the leak on Secretary of State Helena Guergis.
The document obtained by The Canadian Press provided details of contact between Martin, who is in a Guadalajara jail on charges of money laundering, and the Canadian consulate in that city.
It also refers to Martin's behaviour in jail, including her skirmishes with other inmates and that she once refused a call from her mother because she was in a prison beauty pageant.
She told Â鶹´«Ã½net on Friday that while she did appear in the pageant, it was not during a scheduled call with her mother. She maintains she was just passing time, and that the report contained only selective details in an effort to distort public opinion of her.
"I entered (the pageant) to occupy my time," she said. "Why was it never mentioned that I have volunteered my time to the nursery?"
It is unclear why the Foreign Affairs department created the point-form chronology.
Officials have repeatedly said they do not have the power to intervene in Mexico's internal affairs and that they are doing their best to help.
Martin is accused of being part of a fraud scheme led by her former employer, Alyn Waage, who bilked Canadians and Americans out of millions of dollars in an online scam. The Canadian says she's innocent.
Liberal MP Dan McTeague, who had said earlier on Friday that he was planning to launch a privacy complaint about the leak, claimed the Conservative government is sending the message that it's "open season" on anyone who disagrees with their decisions.
"There has been a serious breach in the privacy act," he told Newsnet on Friday. "This is not only a smokescreen, it's... breaking the law."
Rally to support Martin's cause
Meanwhile, Paul Macklin, Liberal candidate for Northumberland-Quinte West, is organizing a rally on Saturday to pressure the government to do more to help the Trenton, Ont. woman.
"We're hoping to have hundreds on (Parliament) Hill who will be able to express their perspective on this," Macklin told Canada AM on Friday, noting groups from as far as Calgary; London, Ont.; and Windsor, Ont. have confirmed their attendance.
Parliament is back in session on Monday after a two-week Easter break.
Macklin thinks it will take the highest level of intervention before anything is done to further Martin's case.
"The question becomes one of the timeliness and effectiveness of these interventions," he said. "Clearly we need to have a relationship with President (Felipe) Calderon on this file to make sure that both Canada and Mexico come out with a satisfactory resolution."
Macklin is also co-ordinating the Save Brenda Fund, which is amassing donations to help pay for Martin's legal fees. He said Martin, who was on suicide watch, is on a significant number of unknown medications.
"She is just a shell of the person she was some two years ago," he said. "This case, as we've heard from insiders in the Mexican legal system, is a botched case."
Martin said the stress caused by her indefinite prison stay has led to her rapid deterioration.
"I am on quite a bit of psychiatric drugs in order to sleep," she told Newsnet on Monday. "I'm very, very unstable medically."
