Myriam Bedard arrested in Maryland

Canadian Press, various news media throughout Canada, December 23, 2006

JESSUP , Md. Canadian Olympic champion Myriam Bedard is facing Christmas in a stark detention centre after U.S. marshals tracked down the missing mother and her 12-year-old daughter at an upscale hotel in Maryland.

Authorities caught up with Bedard late Friday night at the Homewood Suites hotel in Columbia, Md. The hotel, part of the Hilton chain, is in a huge complex of restaurants just off the major expressway linking Washington and Baltimore.

Bedard, Canada's sweetheart after winning two Olympic gold medals in 1994, was wanted on charges of abducting her daughter. An arrest warrant was issued against her in Canada Dec. 8 after her former husband the girl's father alleged she had taken their daughter away from Quebec City without his permission, violating a joint custody agreement.

"We tracked her down at her hotel," Michael Kulstad, spokesman for the U.S. Marshal's Service, said Saturday. "She was taken into custody without incident."

Former Olympic athlete Myriam Bedard talks with reporters following her testimony before the Commons public accounts committee in Ottawa Wednesday, March 24, 2004 (CP)

Until her scheduled court appearance Tuesday, Bedard is being held at the Howard County Detention Center, a bleak low-slung building of grey and red bricks surrounded by an immense fenced topped with barbed wire.

The facility in Jessup, Md., about three kilometres from the hotel where Bedard was arrested, holds more than 300 detainees awaiting hearings on charges ranging from disdemeanours to felonies. No armed guards were visible outside the detention centre, which is adjacent to a large prison.

Tuesday's court hearing is related to proceedings to extradite Bedard back to Canada.

Jeanette Cross, manager of the Homewood Suites, was on duty when Bedard was arrested. She refused to provide details or say how long Bedard had been staying at the hotel.

"We just rented a room and that's all we know," she said.
U.S. marshals say the RCMP first contacted them for help locating Bedard on Dec. 15. Once authorities determined she was in the United States, they obtained a provisional arrest warrant last Wednesday.

At their home in Quebec City, Bedard's parents expressed relief that she was found.

"We were worried," her father, Pierre, told CBC's French service. "I'm happy. It's good for the family. It's a big relief."

"We'll have a nice holiday," added his wife Francine.

Officials would say only that Bedard's daughter was in the protective custody of U.S. social services.

"I cannot tell you where she is for security reasons," Foreign Affairs spokeswoman Catherine Gagnier said in Ottawa. "She is provided with consular help."

Quebec City police spokeswoman Sandra Dion told The Canadian Press she didn't immediately know when the girl would be reunited with her father, Jean Paquet, but she believed it would be soon.
"She's doing fine and the U.S. social service is taking care of the child until she finds her father again," Dion said.

She said Quebec City police had received information on Bedard's whereabouts and passed it on to the RCMP, which acts as liaison with foreign police forces. The Mounties then alerted the U.S. marshals, which is the United States' primary fugitive-hunting agency.
Dion did not have any information about Bedard's current husband, Nima Mazhari, who was reportedly travelling with her. Dion said the Canada-wide arrest warrant only applied to Bedard. There was no indication of any charges or warrants against Mazhari.

Police have so far refused to divulge any details of their investigation, which started in October after an initial complaint from Paquet.
Bedard and Mazhari went to the United States in October. They alerted the president of the International Olympic Committee, UN Secretary General Kofi Annan and David Wilkins, the U.S. ambassador to Canada, to the fact they were making the trip.

Bedard's family said they had brief telephone conversations with Bedard, who said she was living in a hotel.

Bedard, a native of Loretteville, near Quebec City, is no stranger to controversy despite winning the hearts of Canadians with her gold-medal wins in the biathlon at the Lillehammer, Norway, Winter Olympics in 1994, and a bronze medal at the 1992 games in Albertville, France.

She sued, and settled out of court, when Wrigley Canada Inc. ran an ad featuring an altered photo of her that she said made her look masculine.

Bedard tussled with Biathlon Canada over training and endorsements. But she started really raising eyebrows with charges during the federal sponsorship scandal. She said she was forced from her Via Rail job because of questions she raised about inflated payments to Quebec ad firms.