Organization seeking answers
An international human rights organization that has been following the suspicious deaths of two Americans in Canada, including Uniontown war veteran Mark Kraynak, is taking its fight for further investigation into the deaths and the permits allowing the men to work in the country to the top levels of the Bush administration. With Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice scheduled to visit the Canadian Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Pierre Pettigrew in Ottawa Oct. 24 and 25, Irish Anti-Trafficking Coalition (IATC) Director Gregory Carlin is hoping the trip is an opportunity for the U.S. government to get involved in the case.
Carlin, whose organization is based in Dublin, faxed Rice a request to investigate circumstances surrounding the case Wednesday, calling for further examination of the permits obtained by the men to work in Canada.
“The two victims were awarded exotic dancer permits through an application by a male model agency called French Connection Francaise (FCF). Can your officials ask for a report on this tragedy?” Carlin requested of Rice.
“The visa scheme has come under fire by human rights groups, citing repeated instances of forced prostitution and other forms of exploitation and slavery. I would be grateful if you could ask Canadian officials to explain why the police of Laval have chosen to denigrate the characters of the two dead men with allegations of fare evasion.
“The petty crime speculation does not seem to be evidence based and it has caused particular distress to the family of Mr. Mark Kraynak. I would be grateful if you could be so good as to review this matter on my behalf,” Carlin stated.
Kraynak’s body 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, 23, 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.
Laval authorities have been unable to track down a taxicab driver that transported the men to the Red Lite, which they never entered, and have concluded that the men were likely running from their $40 cab fare when they fell to their deaths in the quarry.
Kraynak and Wright were supposed to return to the United States the day they went missing, after spending a few months working for French Connection Francaise (FCF), a modeling agency owned by Stephan Sirard, which also functions as a pornography-recruiting agency based in California.
Sirard, the owner of the California-based scouting company, was accompanying both men in Montreal at the time of the incident and offered a $10,000 reward for information leading to their discovery.
According to Janice Kraynak, her son and Wright, along with Sirard and another model, Deric Manzi, toured Montreal during the day prior to his disappearance.
Kraynak has questioned the testimony of Sirard to Canadian police regarding the incident, but the owner has denied any involvement in the deaths.
The men were two of six Americans who obtained 90-day permits to work as exotic dancers at a Toronto male strip club called Remington’s, according to Carlin, 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 in a recent phone interview.
“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.”
And Carlin, along with Kraynak’s mother, 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.”
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 Foreign Minister Pierre Pettigrew, who signed the permit legislation in 1998, have gone unanswered.
Following the suspicious deaths, dozens of Internet sites and chat rooms have been created where people from around the country are discussing the case and the theories being floated by Canadian authorities regarding the men’s deaths.
One of the most discussed topics is the taxi itself, with surveillance photos suggesting a possible fourth person in the vehicle with the driver and the two men, something that has not been recognized by Canadian investigators but alleged by Kraynak’s family.
Carlin said he is also reviewing the captured images of the vehicle.
“I hope U.S. officials can get involved in this investigation,” Janice Kraynak said Wednesday.
Carlin agreed: “I do expect U.S. officials attached to the secretary of state to advise the Canadian government to do a proper investigation and to stop calling the victims fare cheats.”