Pray for her mom and family...they've a long road. But thank goodness she is home.

Brenda Martin on a plane back to Canada

http://cfcn.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNe..._martin_080501

Martin on plane back to Canada

CTV.ca News Staff

Thu. May. 1 2008 5:23 PM ET

After spending more than two years in a Mexican prison, Brenda Martin is on a plane and heading back to Canada, CTV News has learned. She may land in Canada by 6:30 p.m. EST.

CTV's National Affairs correspondent Lisa LaFlamme says she has received a report that an inmate in Puente Grande women's prison near Guadalajara -- where Martin was being held -- says she has been sent back to Canada.

LaFlamme said the prisoner reportedly phoned Martin's friend and advocate Deb Tielman and said, "She's gone! She's gone! You must be very happy."

Government officials have not confirmed that the Canadian who has been convicted in Mexico in connection with an Internet fraud scheme is on her way home.

But LaFlamme said that is likely because of privacy concerns. But "we have it from opposition sources that this is confirmed," LaFlamme said.

LaFlamme said the prisoner transfer arranged by Mexican and Canadian authorities will probably send Martin to the Grand Valley Institution for Women in Kitchener, Ont. Her plane may land directly at Waterloo International Airport.

Once Martin is back in Canada, Canadian parole rules apply. But her release will be up to the National Parole Board, an official told CTV last month.

In Canada, a federal prisoner is eligible to apply for day parole after serving one-sixth of her sentence and full parole after serving one-third.

"I think her prison stay will be very short," Tielman told CTV Newsnet's Mike Duffy Live, adding that she believes the government wants to assess her friend's physical and mental state. Mexican prison officials had kept Martin on a suicide watch for the latter part of her stay in the Mexican prison.

Last month, a Mexican judge found Martin guilty of involvement with her former boss' Internet fraud scheme.

He sentenced the 51-year-old native of Trenton, Ont., to a minimum of five years in jail and fined her about $3,500. The federal government loaned Martin the money to pay the fine.

She had spent two years in a Mexican prison before hearing her verdict.

LaFlamme said the Mexican officials appear to have wanted Martin out of their country as much as she wanted to get out.

"This woman inside that prison was making so much noise on the outside that all this Canadian media had converged on the prison," LaFlamme said on Mike Duffy Live.

The media campaign brought Martin's case to the attention of high level officials in the government, including two cabinet ministers and even Prime Minister Stephen Harper. Government officials maintained that they could not influence another country's justice system, but they did work to have Martin returned to Canada based on treaties between Ottawa and Mexico.

Jason Kenney, Canada's secretary of state for multiculturalism, made two visits to Mexico in an effort to negotiate Martin's return to Canada.

"She's probably immediately eligible to apply for parole," Kenney told CTV's Canada AM during his second trip last week.