SERIES: IMPOSSIBLE BOUNDARIES, BARRIERS, AND BADNESS IN MEDICINE & SOCIAL JUSTICE
Part One: Is everyone truly equal before and under the law?
I have lived in legislated poverty since 2019. My former psychiatrist, Dr. Maryna Mammoliti, suggested that I apply for - and signed off on - my application for the Ontario Disability Support Program (ODSP) soon after I became her patient in March of that year. Mammoliti is a well-known Canadian doctor, practicing privately in London, Ontario, publicly at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH) in Toronto, and now practices virtually at Foothills Medical Centre (FMC) and Peter Lougheed Centre (PLC) in Calgary, Alberta.
I am currently a recipient of the Assured Income for the Severely Handicapped (AISH) in Alberta. While it pains me to admit it, I also (until recently) have lived in squalor. It was not by choice. I come from a middle-class family. My father was a member of the Ontario Public Service Employees Union (OPSEU), and my mother worked part-time for as long as I can remember. She sold bets and worked in the ‘money room’ at the Western Fair Racetrack and then later as a teller at the C.N. Credit Union in London, Ontario. I would never have considered myself poor until now.
I have had some ‘big’ jobs in my lifetime. The most I ever earned was at the Hudson’s Bay Company (HBC) as a Learning and Development Manager in 2016. I have completed high school (Ontario Academic Credits (OAC)/grade thirteen in Ontario) and some college courses. I am currently working on becoming a licensed paralegal and a journalist in Canada. My research interests should complement both professions. I have always loved to write, and it has become my passion and my therapy.
My chief diagnosis is Complex Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (C-PTSD). I hold other diagnoses, such as Major Depressive Disorder and Anxiety. Eating Disorders and Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) are also present in my complex clinical constellation. I utilize the food bank, even though I work part-time. AISH benefits pay $1901 (now $1940) per month, and I can earn $1072 per month exempt without deductions. I work sporadically for Marriott International (I’m on another leave again). I have part-time tenure, and I am not considered a casual employee. I have been publicly criticized for being employed as a bartender on social media, when it is all that I can manage at this time. I am doing my level best to survive in this cruel world. I’ve even been criticized by my own family for trying to earn an honest living.
Disclaimer and Trigger Warning: This article is not meant to contact any Mammoliti directly or indirectly in any way. Dr. Maryna Mammoliti has been making false allegations against me since 2020, so these and future articles are simply an effort to clear my name. She has openly accused me of contacting her family, which I absolutely have not done. It is my goal to shed light on the intimidation that occurs in the Canadian Justice System. If this article reaches one harmed patient and inspires them, my seemingly impossible journey and mission will have been worth it. UPDATE: Charge has been withdrawn!
$1901 + $1072 = $2,973.
My rent was $1100 plus utilities. It’s now nearly $1800 plus everything else you can imagine (utilities, parking, pet fees). I recently just got out of a tiny bachelor apartment on 26th Avenue in Calgary, currently known as “the Peach,” and formerly known as “the Jennifer.”UPDATE: I have moved! It reeked of cigarette and marijuana smoke and cat urine. Drugs and cigarettes are sold on the premises. People openly squat and smoke crack in the hallways.
The squatter they call ‘Polish,’ left, and his partner.
It was all I could afford.’ I am in constant overdraft of $1K. I am currently not earning the maximum $1072 on AISH. It’s a long story, but I was on a stress leave from work, and I am currently working my way back to two 8-hour shifts per week. It has been a struggle to even work six hours per week as of late. At the moment, I am on yet another leave. The proceedings with Dr. Mammoliti have taken their toll.
Submission sent to the London Crown Attorney’s Office and to the Ontario Court of Justice
I earn about $18 per hour, so that, multiplied by 16 hours per week, equals $1152. $1152 - $1072 = $80. That $80 will be non-exempt, and 50% of that is $40. This is not simple math, and essentially, this translates to working additional hours with compensation at roughly $9 per hour. Eventually, I should be able to take in a maximum of $2,933 per month. Don’t even get me started on the Disability Tax Credit (DTC). The Alberta Government has decided to consider that $200/month as non-exempt, if approved. So, Albertans with disabilities will be no further ahead than they were before the DTC. Admittedly, Alberta has the highest disability payments in the country, but other provinces offer subsidies for special diets and medical transportation reimbursement. Perhaps Alberta does too, but my requests and questions have gone into the ‘abyss’ since becoming a recipient in 2023, so I cannot say for sure. For the last few months in a row, my benefits have been withheld – due to pay stubs ‘not’ being submitted. I have dutifully reported and submitted my income and pay stubs to the government to corroborate, despite my own sister and former psychiatrist (Mammoliti) accusing me of reporting dishonestly. I have always reported my income. One literally cannot lie via their Social Insurance Number (SIN). All the paystubs were a paltry amount, not even close to the exempt $1072 per month. In my series of articles to come, I will speak in more detail about the ‘Disability Abyss.’
The author’s pay stubs from 2023 to present from Delta-Marriott Calgary Downtown
My entire earnings year to date in 2025 equalled a gross of $708: $364 less than the allotted monthly exempt amount for AISH. Even if they weren’t properly reported (which they were), it is heinous that monthly benefits would be held back, resulting in overdraft, bounced payments and insufficient funds fees for me. Each month is a struggle. Each month produces anxiety for the benefits I have obediently paid into for my entire adult life. I have been working since I was fourteen years old.
I was the accused in an Ontario criminal harassment case. I moved to Alberta in late 2021. The Complainant is Dr. Maryna Mammoliti. I was her patient from March 1, 2019, to October 22, 2020. The outset of our therapeutic relationship began after my mother passed away, and ‘concluded’ during the height of the pandemic in November of 2020. I put concluded in loose quotes, as I feel as though Dr. Mammoliti has ‘followed’ me to Calgary, where I now reside, and to this day (in my opinion) has consequently thwarted my efforts in obtaining both medical and mental health resources. Mammoliti also messaged me incessantly for four weeks, unbilled, before discharging me. My charge wording was as follows:
“On or about the 24th day of May in the year 2023 at the City of London in the Southwest Region did, without lawful authority and knowing that another person, namely Maryna Mammoliti, was harassed or recklessly as to whether that person was harassed, engage in repeatedly communicating with, either directly or indirectly, that person, and cause the said Maryna Mammoliti to reasonably fear for personal safety, contrary to Section 264, subsection (2), clause (b) of the Criminal Code of Canada.”
Mammoliti has been perpetuating a false criminal narrative against me since 2020. It has been a long five years, and I will not stop writing about my experiences as a harmed patient in Canada until the truth, not just my truth, is heard. I will be drawing parallels from the Canadian Medical Protective Association (CMPA) and the Canadian law offices of Lerners LLP. This firm has been undermining me since the 1990s. Again, I will not stop writing about patient safety, medical malpractice, and harm. In the meantime, I encourage you to watch Stacked Odds, an episode of CTV’s W5 that explains the ‘David and Goliath’ concept, perfectly describing the CMPA. Very little has been written about Canadian patient safety in terms of mental health. I recently stumbled across this lone article. Ironically, Waddell and Gratzer are (presumably) colleagues of Mammoliti at CAMH. Hopefully, change is on the horizon, and these heinous truths will soon come to fruition.
The Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms (the Charter) speaks to several legal and equality rights. Section 15 of the Charter states: “Every individual is equal before and under the law and has the right to equal protection and equal benefit of the law without discrimination based on … mental or physical disability.”
It is imperative that I publish this article posthaste before a gag order is imposed upon me. At this time, there is no publication ban, but I fear it will soon be so (UPDATE: No gag order!). Although I am a vulnerable patient and now accused, my privacy has been violated repeatedly; beginning with Mammoliti providing my name, date of birth, address, phone number and email address to the police, when I begged her for a wellness check in late 2020. What ensued was not a wellness check. The CMPA outlines in their advice and publication, Physician Interactions with Police that patient confidentiality and privacy are paramount and should be protected. Mammoliti had no viable reason to provide the London Police Service (LPS) with anything more than my name and context for her call on December 31, 2020. There are outstanding complaints against Mammoliti with the Information and Privacy Commissioner of Ontario (IPC) and with the Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner of Alberta (OIPC). UPDATE: After more than a year, the IPC has decided not to proceed with my complaint. The OIPC investigation is still underway, as there was a Confidentiality Order that was violated in open court in Calgary by Mammoliti’s Alberta lawyer, Gowling WLG. Regardless of the outcome, my complaints will be escalated to the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada, due to the cross-provincial nature of both. Mammoliti’s counsel states that my allegations are/were “without foundation and/or that have already been dismissed.” My allegations are not without foundation, and they have not yet been dismissed (Information and Privacy and Human Rights). It’s been five years. Who would lie about that? Who would keep professing their innocence – despite constant judgment from all levels of government and legislation (Municipal, Provincial and Federal)?
Municipal = Police in both London and Calgary
Provincial = Courts in both Ontario and Alberta, College of Physicians and Surgeons Ontario, College of Physicians and Surgeons Alberta
Federal = the CMPA and their army of lawyers and billions of dollars in taxpayer coffers (doctors pay fees to the CMPA, which in turn, the respective provinces reimburse – sometimes up to 90%).
For example, it essentially costs an Ontario psychiatrist about $1025.00 for unfettered legal representation for a year. That’s a bargain. That’s less than what a person with disabilities in Canada can earn in a month.
Not many harmed Canadian patients know that we, as taxpayers, are essentially funding Canadian doctors’ legal defences against us, should we choose to complain about them and/or hold them to account for their harms.
I believe that the truth will come to light someday, if it hasn’t already. The Crown is blatantly ignoring the evidence which has been provided to them and insists that this matter goes to trial. It is now going past the point of ridiculousness.
May 24, 2023, was four days after my father’s funeral. Mammoliti met my dad in 2019 in her tiny office at Thompson Medical Centre in London. Mammoliti even counselled him with me. We huddled on her small workplace couch together, just weeks after my mom passed away: me gently rubbing his back and blurting out that I loved him, when asked by Dr. Mammoliti if he thought my sister would engage in family counselling. She didn’t even get those words out before my dad exclaimed a resounding “NO.” My trauma response was to laugh out loud and then hug my dad for his.
The author and her father in 2019
My charge was formed on three carbon-copied, non-threatening emails to the Complainant (Mammoliti), four days after I laid my father to rest. The Complainant met him in her office and later told me that she would ‘’be there for me” when he passed away. She even confirms this in the disclosure. The emails were written to my brother-in-law, who had the power of attorney over both of my parents and is the executor of my father’s still unsettled estate. Mammoliti was long aware of the familial challenges. My sister, the wife of the executor, had been interfering with my treatment and in the affairs of my father. She was faxing Mammoliti regularly while I was her patient. I had also been corresponding with Mammoliti’s counsel, Lerners of London, since 2021. They would selectively respond to my concerns and requests. I am still trying to garner corrections to my medical records, which Mammoliti (knowingly or unknowingly) falsified to this day. At this point, I am prepared to broadcast my medical records to the world. My privacy has been violated by Mammoliti in various forms and at least ten times. The/her records contain no safety concerns about me, but paint a poignant picture of Mammoliti herself incessantly messaging me for four weeks, unbilled. She then discharged me without merit. She even said she was looking forward to connecting with me (four days before our next scheduled appointment), and in less than 24 hours, she changed her story. She abruptly discharged me.
Fast forward to the charge, the warrant, and my obliviousness to it all.
I was not aware for at least six months that there was a warrant out for my arrest. When I found out in January of 2024, I was told to contact the London Police Service (LPS). LPS told me to have my lawyer contact them, which I did not have at the time, nor could I afford. They told me to contact the London Crown’s Office. The Crown’s Office told me to contact the London Police. This went on for months. I then tried to attorn the jurisdiction, and essentially gave up. Since my warrant was ‘in the first,’ I utilized a credit I had on WestJet and turned myself in to the Toronto Police on July 24, 2024, which was in accordance with the 400 kilometres of London.
I was not cuffed, fingerprinted, or mugshotted. I was released with a court date of September 9, 2024.
When I finally got my disclosure, I learned Mammoliti had stated (in June 2023) that:
“… she has no attachment in life that would stop her from caring if she was in jail. I am terrified she will kill me.”
Mammoliti would later get licensed to practice in Alberta, just months after she made this statement. She continues to create more issues for me with the Calgary Police and now the Calgary Courts. Documents were allegedly served on reception in September of 2024, at Mammoliti’s supposed physical practice location in Calgary, on a day that she does hospital work, and at a time she would not be there.
Mammoliti’s lawyers in both London and Calgary are relentless in racking up their fees that are essentially billed back to Canadian taxpayers. You and I are paying for her legal defence. I wish I were making this up.
I have retained three lawyers through Legal Aid Ontario since the undertaking in 2024. They have all removed themselves from my case. I will speak of that experience in an upcoming article. For now, in the eyes of the Ontario Court of Justice (OCJ), I am considered a self-represented accused. I have a full certificate that includes casework for Charter Applications and Trials. No Southwestern Ontario lawyer seems to want to pick up the case, despite my organization and evidence regarding Mammoliti’s false allegations. It was not me who was pushing for an expensive trial. The charge should have been stayed at the outset. I wasn’t even in the province of Ontario, as Mammoliti alleges on May 24, 2023. I believe that she has repeatedly abused her position as an ‘accomplished’ psychiatrist to diminish my character. It’s been five years of this. I’m falling apart.
Legal Aid Certificates from the Legal Aid Ontario Client Portal
As daunting as one could imagine, I conducted my own Judicial Pre-Trial (JPT) in February 2025. I simply didn’t know the right things to say or do or mention or ask for. All I know is that at the outset of my court appearances, my directions to counsel were clear, and in this order: work to have the charge withdrawn, participate in some sort of restorative justice or mental health diversion, or book a trial date. The transcripts, which now span over a year, are not something that a person on a fixed income can afford. My friends jokingly tease me that I have court every week, sometimes in two provinces and on the same day (it’s not a joke, it’s true). However, should I ever get the chance to obtain all transcripts, those transcripts will corroborate everything I have said (when, in fact, I was indeed allowed to speak for myself). Luckily, I took detailed notes and was fortunate enough to have some supportive friends on Zoom as allies (before online policies changed for the Ontario Court of Justice).
I also conducted my own Crown Pre-Trial (CPT) on April 3, 2025. I booked a return ticket on that same day for my Pre-Trial Applications, which were meant to take place on September 4, 2025. I planned to drive my vehicle to Ontario while the weather was fair, and leave it with a friend in Toronto so that I would have my car available for the trial in January. I was unable to attend in person, and I was not even allowed into the Virtual Courtroom. I literally could not afford to get there.
Email from the London Crown Attorney on September 4, 2025
Presumptively, the harassment prosecution was already unreasonable under Jordan (the rule, not the principle). London Police laid the harassment charge on July 15, 2023, and it was sworn to on July 24, 2023. My trial was to take place beginning January 26, 2026, resulting in a 30-month delay. It was booked for two days on a Monday and a Friday. I am meant to appear in person. This is going to continue to cause me undue financial hardship. UPDATE: Charge was withdrawn on January 21, 2026.
Evidence sent to the London Crown Attorney’s Office and the Ontario Court of Justice in August 2025.
Next Article: November 17, 2020