Canada's Business Abroad

"Jean, he's very extroverted ... I would lie to you if I [said] I didn't notice or expect that something like that would happen to him but not to Marc."
"I'm in a very bad state."
"Listen, to see [a teenager] who was suddenly killed. When someone is ill, you can gradually get used to the idea that there's no hope, but this is a child in good health, so it's a shock."
Germano Wabafiyebazu, Ottawa, father of Jean and Marc Wabafiyebazu

"This is a very serious crime. It touches a lot of the hot button issues down there [in Florida]. This is going to be very, very problematic."
"A lot of this [diplomacy] is public relations-type work. You are promoting the country, going out and representing the government and the country in terms of trying to drum up business trade]. Will people look at her [Roxanne Dube, Canadian Consul-General in Miami] and not be focusing on the Canadian link but focusing on, 'This is the mother of somebody who's been charged with murder'?"
Dane Rowlands, director, Carleton University, Norman Paterson School of International Affairs

"The defendant arrived on the scene with two pounds [1 kg] of marijuana, entered the residence and began the negotiations. [During negotiations, Wright and Wabafiyebazu] became involved in an exchange of gunfire."
Miami Police Services affidavit

CTV NewsGo

Canada has quite a bit invested in its trade with Florida. Florida for its part, is heavily dependent on Canadians leaving behind a substantial endowment in tourist dollars to benefit the state, its economy hugely dependent on tourism, with a particular Canadian slant. Canada renders to Florida its most frequent visitors from abroad; about four million annual visits with $4.4-billion spent by Canadians. One-third of all properties in Florida are owned by Canadians.

The two-way trade between Canada and Florida alone totals over $8.7-billion annually. Reciprocally, Florida businesses have invested over $12-billion in Canada. This is a neighbourly relationship of great value to both Canada and to the State of Florida. The presence and persona of a Canadian diplomat to interact between the two is of invaluable substance in furthering the relationship and creating an aura of reliability and inter-dependency.

The fact that two youths, sons of Canada's newly-appointed Consul-General in Miami, went out looking for drugs, were in possession of handguns, and meant to rob two drug dealers of the cache of drugs they were meant to negotiate for; drugs for cash, with the episode ending in two dead young men, one American the other Canadian does not reflect the best that Canada has to offer in the realm of the diplomatic exchange.

The two Wabafiyebazu brothers, Jean, 17, and his younger brother Marc, 15, embarked on a mission, armed and prepared for violence. They had arranged to meet high-schooler Joshua Wright, and 19-year-old Alexander Rodriguez, a known drug dealer at an apartment in Coral Way, southwest Miami, not far from where the two boys lived in a luxurious home in an upscale enclave with their diplomat mother.

The negotiations did not proceed with equanimity on both sides; both sides resorted to firing live shots at one another and the result was two young men dead, another wounded, and a fourth arrested on the charge of first-degree murder. Marc Wabafiyebazu, who had been sitting in his mother's BMW while his brother entered the apartment, himself entered the apartment after hearing gunshots, picked up a gun, exited and used it to shoot with; whether at the wounded and fleeing Mr. Rodriguez is not known.

After his arrest he threatened to shoot a homicide detective in the head. Ambassadors and Consuls General represent their countries' interests while being posted in another country. Their focus is on diplomatic relations as official representatives of the government of one country in the geography of another. That this diplomat arrived in Miami and brought with her two Canadian thugs when the U.S. has more than enough of their own, does not inspire confidence in either country.