A Saskatoon witness to the National Citizens Inquiry on COVID-19 will be $1,400 poorer due to a fine for defying public health orders..Marjaleena Repo was found guilty July 7 for participating in a protest rally with more than ten people..On April 24, 2021, about 100 people attended a children's freedom rally in Saskatoon. For attending, Repo was fined $1,000 plus $400 for court fees..In a Facebook post, Repo said she was turned down by 13 lawyers she tried to hire to represent her and cited the Saskatchewan Bill of Rights in her defence. She reminded Justice Agnew that Section 26 of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms validated the Bill of Rights’ continuing relevance..She said Crown Counsel Noah S. Wernikowski tried to argue that the Charter superseded the Bill and that the latter was “anachronistic.”.Agnew cited R v Sullivan (2019) to say he was bound by precedent to rule against Repo. He also cited Grandel v Saskatchewan (2022) where Justice Konkin upheld the health orders..“Judge Agnew suggested there were also openings in the Sullivan decision that I could have used to argue in my favour, but as I did not, he was bound to rule against me,” Repo wrote, adding she was unfamiliar with the case..“He dismissed my arguments of discrimination, where I had been ticketed while demonstrators in other kinds of protests were not, citing a Supreme Court ruling supporting police discretionary powers…and besides I could not prove the discrimination, because there were people on our side who had not gotten tickets and I would have had no proof that nobody at all got tickets [at different kinds of protests].”.Lillian Heichman, who attended Repo’s court appearances, told the Western Standard she was one such person who “attended all of the gatherings in Saskatoon for which others were ticketed but was fortunate in not having received a ticket.”.“Marjaleena had a page from the StarPhoenix…that there were only two COVID deaths for a certain time period in Saskatoon that pertained to the time of the event for which she was ticketed. Judge Agnew took that article to be ‘hearsay’. How could he know that the numbers were accurate?".“Interesting to note that he rejected this media report as ‘hearsay’ when the public was regularly fed these numbers to promote the fear. Marjaleena was quite upset about this piece of her evidence being rejected.”.Heichman said she wrote the prosecutor last year asking leniency for Repo..“Did she want to be on record for having prosecuted an 84-year-old woman with stage four cancer for being in a park on a nice day in April 2021?” Heichman recalled..According to Repo, the letter was mentioned by Crown prosecutor Buffy Rogers and factored into the fine’s reduction from $2,800..Repo said she was “shocked and surprised” about parts of the judgment, including an assertion she admitted that the Bill of Rights had restrictions..“I had made no such statement, and said the opposite, namely that its declared rights are ‘absolute’ and cannot be imposed on by the government as they can in the Section 1 of the Charter,” Repo claimed..“The second [surprising] comment was him using the word ‘egregious’ to describe my participation in the rally against forced used of masks on children.”.Repo admitted, “I am definitely guilty,” but said she would have welcomed more in-person support..“I was happy to get all the well wishes for the court and the many prayers, which added up to me feeling calm about the difficult event, but would have also wanted to see more actual support in the court from those who weren't working and were not otherwise occupied,” Repo wrote..Heichman expressed disappointment with the verdict..“It seems obvious that no profession is willing criticize the actions of another profession. It appears to me that judges will not rule against a government mandate as their wages come from the public purse,” she said..“From Marjaleena’s trial it is obvious that we are not free to protest government overreach.”.Const. Nathan Lynchuk, retired from the Saskatoon Police Service after his attendance at the children’s freedom rally, raised controversy with his superiors. A poster for the event at Saskatoon’s Kiwanis Park said it featured hula hoops, jump rope, bubbles and a magician..Repo’s April 20 testimony to the NCI can be viewed here.
