'She wanted to stay with me in Washington; she was free to do what she wanted'

Marianne White

Former Olympic medallist Myriam Bédard denied yesterday that she wanted to take her daughter away from her ex-husband when she left Canada for the United States last fall.

Bédard, charged with violating a custody agreement with her former husband, took the stand for the first time at her trial.

She said she would have put her daughter, 11 years old at the time, on the next plane to Quebec to see her father, Jean Paquet, if he had asked to see her.

"I told (the daughter) probably 20 times that she could leave to see her father if she wished," a calm and composed Bédard said.

"But she wanted to stay with me in Washington. She was free to do what she wanted, but Mr. Paquet never asked to see her."

Bédard, her common-law husband, Nima Mazhari, and her daughter, travelled to the United States on Oct. 2 to protest against what they called "bureaucratic terrorism" by Canadian authorities.

Bédard had testified during the Gomery commission into the sponsorship scandal, and she said the government was hassling her and Mazhari because of that.

Bédard said she notified Paquet in May that she planned to go to the United States with her daughter "in the fall" without giving the departure date, but Paquet testified he had never been told.

She went on to tell the six-man, six-woman jury that she often travelled with her daughter and that it had never bothered Paquet before.

"He never asked anything about our trips. I travelled with our daughter and he did the same. So, when we left for the United States, it was business as usual for me," said Bédard, who was wearing a long black coat with matching pants - the same outfit she has been sporting since the trial started.

She testified she was "very surprised" when she found out Dec. 14 there was an arrest warrant against her.

"I couldn't believe it," Bédard said.

She added that she and Mazhari, along with the daughter, went to see the FBI to ask what they should do and to show they were not on the run. Bédard said she never thought about calling Quebec City police, the RCMP or Paquet.

Paquet officially lodged a complaint with Quebec City police at the end of November after he couldn't contact his daughter for almost two weeks.

Bédard said she had turned off the ringing of her cellphone because "it rang way too often."

She also mentioned that she, Mazhari and her daughter slept in 29 different hotels while they were in the U.S., but denied they were hiding.

Bédard, a 37-year-old double-gold medallist in Olympic biathlon, was arrested in the U.S. after the international warrant was issued in December.

Bédard's parents are attending the trial of their estranged daughter, to whom they haven't spoken in more than four years.

The former athlete's testimony is to resume today.

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