A Canadian on life support in a Cancun hospital -- the victim of a beating at a posh resort, according to his family, but who Mexican officials say accidentally tumbled from a balcony -- is reigniting the debate about how safe the tropical country is for tourists.
Jeff Toews, a 34-year-old oil-industry salesman from Grande Prairie, Alta., was found unconscious early Monday morning by security guards at the Moon Palace Golf and Spa Resort, where his family has been vacationing on the south end of Cancun.
Mr. Toews has serious head and back injuries, said his brother, Murray, who along with other family members, spent yesterday at his bedside at a local hospital.
Mr. Toews is in a medically induced coma in an attempt to curb swelling of the brain, but relatives say he may not survive. And now, with news that the Attorney-General for the state of Quintana Roo believes there is no reason to suspect foul play, the Toews family is not confident they will ever find out what happened.
"It's all a big cover-up," Murray Toews said.
This is the latest in a string of incidents involving Canadians who have been killed or injured while vacationing in Mexico, several in similarly mysterious circumstances.
In January, 19-year-old Adam DePrisco of Woodbridge, Ont., was found dead outside a bar in Acapulco. His loved ones say he was beaten to death; a Mexican official said he was the victim of a hit-and-run.
Drug-related violence and gun activity is on the rise in Mexico, affecting locals and tourists alike. Last month, two Canadians were hurt when a gunman shot into the lobby of an Acapulco hotel, and this month, gunmen targeted the police chief of Cancun. He survived, but one of his bodyguards was killed.
Ken Boshcoff, a Liberal MP from Thunder Bay, has been advocating for two women from his Northern Ontario city whom Mexican police initially implicated in the murders of Domenic and Nancy Ianiero of Woodbridge after they were found with their throats slit last year at their Cancun area resort.
That case remains unsolved.
"There's about two dozen outstanding cases now of murders, abductions, beatings, robberies - high-profile, serious, what we would call death or near-death situations [involving Canadians]- that there's been no progress on," Mr. Boshcoff said yesterday.
Mr. Toews was staying at the Moon Palace, a 2,103-room golf resort with his wife, Natalie, and their son, Dawson, who turns 3 tomorrow, along with his twin brother's family and a group of other couples from northern Alberta.
On Sunday night, the vacationers were partying at the resort's nightclub. That evening and into the early morning hours on Monday, Mr. Toews was going back and forth between his room and the bar. At one point, he vanished.
Bello Melchor Rodriguez y Carrillo, the region's top prosecutor, who is also handling the Ianiero case, said reports from the hospital and a security guard suggest that the Canadian was running to the second floor of the hotel, lost control and fell.
"He wasn't beaten," he said.
The Toews family believes Mr. Toews was never on the second floor, that he may have been chased by security guards and at some point attacked.
"This is not a good time," Natalie Toews said yesterday from the hospital.
Mr. Boshcoff said he has little confidence in Mexican policing, and worries that officials care more about the nation's $12-billion (U.S.)-a-year tourism industry. He has been pushing Ottawa to revise Canada's travel bulletins to include a warning about Mexico.
Foreign Affairs maintains a standard travel report about Mexico that lists precautions about purse snatching, pick-pocketing and random shootings. But until there is a "specific threat" to Canadians, the advisory is considered up to date and people are not being told to avoid Mexico, according to Alain Cacchione, spokesman with the department.
During Question Period yesterday, Foreign Affairs Minister Peter MacKay described Mr. Toews' situation as "tragic and troubling."
"We are remaining in contact with [the family]providing them assistance as well as focusing on having local authorities investigate this case and the cause of the injury," he said.
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Travellers killed abroad
According to Foreign Affairs, 453 Canadians were killed while out of the country between Jan. 1, 1994, and May 8, 2007. So far this year, 79 Canadians have told Ottawa they were victims of assaults around the world. (The department does not provide data when there are fewer than three deaths in a country.)
Saudi Arabia 3
Laos 3
Turkey 3
Australia 3
Bahamas 3
Cuba 3
China 4
Indonesia 4
Ethiopia 4
Rwanda 4
Chile 4
Colombia 4
Peru 4
Costa Rica 5
Germany 5
South Africa 5
Brazil 6
Russia 7
Pakistan 7
Trinidad and Tobago 7
Guyana 7
Thailand 9
Guatemala 11
Iraq 12
Jamaica 13
Dominican Rep. 13
India 15
Philippines 16
Haiti 25
Mexico 28
U.S. 94