Information sought on illegal permits issued to Iraq veteran
The mother of a local man who was found dead in Canada last month and the director of an international agency are looking for answers regarding the untimely death and hoping for information regarding what they believe were illegal permits issued to the Iraq war veteran. The body of Mark Kraynak, 23, of Uniontown was found Sept. 1 at the bottom of the rock quarry along with the body of Steven Wright, 20, of Guernville, Calif., behind a local nighttime hotspot, the Red Lite, outside of Montreal in the city of Laval.
An extensive, 10-day search ensued following Kraynak’s disappearance in late August, led by Montreal police.
Kraynak and Wright were missing for 10 days before investigators were able to trace a cell phone transmitter from Kraynak’s phone to near the Red Lite, where the bodies were found by search teams and police helicopters at the bottom of the cliff.
The men were two of six Americans that obtained 90-day permits to work as exotic dancers at a Toronto male strip club called Remington’s, according to Gregory Carlin, director of the Irish Anti-Trafficking Coalition (IATC), who alleges the permits were part of a larger government scheme.
“Given the probable history associated with this scheme, the Canadian government would want this to just go away,” Carlin said of the suspicious deaths. “This is not the first time people have been tricked. These boys were basically recruited and there is no way that Mr. Kraynak had any idea what he would be getting involved in. He had no idea what Remington’s would be like. He thought he was getting involved in a legitimate modeling agency.”
He described the nightclub as “pretty sick and “not like the boy version of Chip n’ Dale dancers.”
During her comments Thursday, Kraynak also alleged that Remington’s, which she described as a club for “homosexual pleasure,” was enticing dancers to become “escorts for wealthy homosexual men.”
A spokesperson for Remington’s was not available at press time.
Kraynak made it clear that she is not “anti-gay” or homophobic in any way but that Mark was not a homosexual, as he was often portrayed.
“My son was not a homosexual and he did not want to be portrayed as one,” Kraynak said.
She described an incident just prior to his death in which Remington’s used Mark as a cover boy in a homosexual ad campaign, one that Mark immediately took issue with.
“He made them pull his photo and that cost someone a lot of money,” Kraynak said, noting the incident could have played a part in his sudden demise.
And Carlin said he does not support the theories about the deaths coming from Laval police.
“We have particular problems with the police account in this case,” Carlin added concerning the Laval assumption. “We have people on the ground investigating and we will have further details soon. Speculation and guess work is all this family has gotten.”
Kraynak was a 2000 graduate of Laurel Highlands High School and had been attending classes at Penn State Fayette, The Eberly Campus following his return from the war in Iraq just a year ago where he was injured with the 82nd Airborne Division
U.S. Department of State, Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons spokesman Gannon Sims said permit and visa schemes have been “the only black spot” on Canada’s trafficking record.
The U.S. Government updated their Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act in 2003 and noted “Corruption among foreign law enforcement authorities continues to undermine the efforts by governments to investigate, prosecute and convict traffickers.”
And according to the Trafficking in Persons Report for 2005 Canada continues to battle to bring illegal permitting under control.
“The government revised its immigration policy to discontinue a blanket employment waiver (begun in 1998) that had permitted adult entertainment establishments to hire foreign women as exotic dancers – a type of program that has been abused and exploited by traffickers in many other countries. Officials acknowledge that some women may have been forced into prostitution. The visa program has not been entirely suspended. According to the Government of Canada’s official tally, 46 “exotic dancer” visas were issued in 2004,” the report states.
Attempts to contact the Canadian government, including Minister Pierre Pettigrew, who signed permit legislation in 1998, have gone unanswered.