13. Marjaleena Repo.mp4: Video automatically transcribed by Sonix

13. Marjaleena Repo.mp4: this mp4 video file was automatically transcribed by Sonix with the best speech-to-text algorithms. This transcript may contain errors.

Marjaleena Repo:
Well, yes. I just wanted to remind everybody about what I am. I'm an elderly woman. And and as such, I'm also vulnerable. And as such, I'm supposed to get extra special attention from the health care system and society. You know, always hear that the the vulnerable elderly. Well, I I've been receiving the heart end of the stick instead. And that's now two and a half years. And it is an ongoing issue for me here in Saskatchewan. Of course, we we're supposed to have our restrictions lifted in March 1st, but in fact, they have not been lifted. They had been downloaded to everybody and anybody who wants to use them so people can use vaccine, passports. All the theatres in the city that are used to love the theatres, I mean, can prevent you from coming in. There's all kinds of organizations, businesses that can do their thing. And, you know, I and other people have to try to navigate and discover which way we are going to be hit. And life is very restricted. The health care became really, from my point of view, it collapsed in in the early stages of the lockdown. And my experience was in the late twenties when I discovered that I had my breast tumour had spread into a into my bone and, and I was declared a stage of war and told that there would be no surgery for me.

Marjaleena Repo:
Breast surgery wasn't possible. So I agreed that I would have I wanted to have radiation agree that it might help. And I was prepared to have her discuss with my integrative medicine doctor. I had known and prepared for this. I wanted to prepare for radiation so there would be as little damage as possible and and agreed to have a radiation treatment for five days in a week. And it turns out when I went to the cancer clinic here in Saskatoon, that actually they were only concerned about the mask. They were not really concerned about me at all. I couldn't get anybody to even hear that. I had a very hard time with masks that I couldn't breathe, that I could be panicky, I could faint. And in fact, in my doctor's family, doctor's office, which is another story, I had an episode when my blood pressure went up to 210, you know, in no time, because I couldn't I felt I was suffocating and fainting at the same time. So that particular doctor gave me the basis of my history. And that episode, the experience I got, the mandate I got the medical exemption and which turned out to be used, it was worth nothing.

Trish Wood:
Why do you say it was worth nothing?

Marjaleena Repo:
It was rejected out of hand. I couldn't it was not by the health services of the, you know, the very people that actually declared that you can have a mask exemption if you can get the doctor to give you that. They they didn't recognize it. So the hospitals don't recognize it. The clinics don't recognize it. The doctors don't recognize alternative healthcare doesn't recognize it. So basically you have nothing, you know, so and I ended up taking the heavy dose of radiation because I did not want to go for five days and suffer and try to go try to sneak breaths or to follow the recommendations of a nurse who told me, if you need to breathe, you can go to the washroom. So he was being very helpful to me and so I have not gone back to that clinic since except to pick up my medication a few times. I don't do it anymore. It gets mailed. So at least I get that I have limited my encounter with my oncologist. I don't have never seen him, he's never seen me. And he talks to me every two months, three months or so, 15 minutes, maybe 10 minutes. And and and before that, I go on and try to get a blood test, which I had to do yesterday. I went in with nervously going on the bus for one thing, because I've been already being kicked off a bus. I'm not even allowed to get in because I don't have a mask. It's a case that I had to take the Human Rights Commission eventually and lost it there because the Human Rights Commission actually wanted to get my whole access to my whole medical history before they would deal with the injustice of that. So, you know, I have I haven't been denied a blood test in my own very own clinic because I've been a member of since 79 and actually a supportive member because, you know, I've been it's a co-op, you know, so I could not go to that anymore because I was physically, you know, attempted to be forced to wear a mask at the last time. So.

Trish Wood:
So I just want to clarify something, Marlene, around your story that what you're saying, if I'm reading you correctly, is that your inability to wear a mask is impeding your access to in-person medical care. Is that correct?

Marjaleena Repo:
It's total. It's total. Even now when we have even now when the.

Trish Wood:
As a cancer patient. By the way, just to add anything.

Marjaleena Repo:
I can't go to a podiatrist in my neighborhood because I can't wear a mask because I would faint in the office. So basically I have to like, no, not just cancer care properly, but foot care or whatever care. It's like it's it's all around me. It's hostility, you know, to my person because I don't wear a mask, I wear a button, you know, I have a button that says I'm exempt. That's my only defense right now. Because because my, my, my exemption is like it's useless. It's the very people who gave it to me took it away from me, you know? So although it was fully declared in big letters that if you have a medical exemption, you don't have to wear a mask. Well, it never worked for me. So, you know, right now I'm fighting for fighting for my right to breathe. And I'm going to be fighting it in court as well, because I got a ticket for attending a children's freedom rally to protest the masking of children. Well, I went there to also, you know, protest myself and immediately got a picture taken by the police. And then I got my $2800 ticket. And now the interesting thing is, you know, part of the same story is that I might not be able to go into the court.

Marjaleena Repo:
I can't go to court either, because they are. Next thing you know, I have already had encounters in a court where the judges will scream at me for not having a mask, although fully aware that that, you know, I had I had that I had that exemption. So it's quite possible that I won't even be able to go on my own trial. So this is getting very, very, very interesting, you know? You know, no access to healthcare, no access to court to try to get justice and no access to anything else that is of, you know, like government buildings, city building, you know, the bus and transit, which I rely on, you know, and that's been humiliated by drivers and then also blocked. So and this is, you know, a daily thing that can happen to you. So going even yesterday to get my blood test in another another clinic, I really had to go all the way there. Am I going to be told to stay in, stay in a hallway, don't come in and etc.? So this is the raw end of the stick.

Trish Wood:
Well, it sounds like it. Marjaleena And it's a devastating story to hear. You've got these challenges while being gravely ill. It sounds so thank you very much for for attending and telling your story. We're very grateful to you. Thank you.

Marjaleena Repo:
You're welcome.

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