25409: Wharram - news - Montreal women kidnapped in Haiti has been released, MP says (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

> From Bruce Wharram <bruce.wharram@sev.org>

Yahoo! News
Montreal women kidnapped in Haiti has been released, MP says

Wed Jun 15, 7:27 PM ET

OTTAWA (CP) - A Montreal woman kidnapped in Haiti on the weekend has been
released, the Liberal MP responsible for Canadians abroad has confirmed.

The captors of Huguette Goulet, 65, let her go early Wednesday evening, said
Dan McTeague. "Goulet has indeed been released and is out of harm's way,"
McTeague said in a telephone interview.

Family members say Goulet was kidnapped in Port-au-Prince.

A ransom of $300,000 US was reported to have been demanded for her release,
but McTeague wouldn't confirm or deny that any money was paid.

Canadian diplomats in Haiti were involved in the matter but did not
participate in any direct talks with the hostage-takers, said McTeague, MP
for the Toronto-area riding of Pickering-Scarborough East.

"The Canadian government does not negotiate with kidnappers," he said. "That
would set a very dangerous precedent and that certainly wasn't the case
here."

Goulet's niece, Nathalie Caya, said her aunt runs an Internet and
long-distance phone service with her husband, Dugue Jean-Louis, and an
associate.

The business, MLN Technologies, is incorporated in Canada but Goulet and
Jean-Louis travel regularly to Haiti to run it from an addition to their
home there.

Goulet also teaches computer science courses and promotes solar and wind
energy, giving speeches and demonstrations in Port-au-Prince and elsewhere,
Caya said.

Foreign Affairs has said fewer than a dozen Canadians have been kidnapped in
Haiti since 1999. All are believed to have been released unharmed.

The department advises against travel to the impoverished, violence-racked
Caribbean country.

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