'I just need a chance to live again': Jamaican migrant worker with cancer begs to stay in N.S.
CBC
A seasonal farm worker from Jamaica is fighting to stay in Nova Scotia for cancer treatment, saying it would be a death sentence for her to go home.
Kerian Burnett, 42, was hired by a Colchester County farm through the Seasonal Agricultural Worker Program (SAWP) in April. She picked strawberries for about two months before she began experiencing severe pain. By June, the pain was so extreme that she stopped working and was ultimately diagnosed with cervical cancer in mid-September.
"I just need a chance to live again," said Burnett, in tears, in an interview with CBC News. "I feel excessive pain ... I take more than 20 painkillers per day."
Her SAWP contract expires on Dec. 15, legally requiring her to leave Canada.
Burnett has no idea how she will pay the medical bills she's already racked up after two surgeries, totalling about $81,000. The treatment is not covered under Nova Scotia's Medical Services Insurance (MSI) Program because she's a temporary worker. She did have health insurance through her work — which provides up to $100,000 worth of coverage — but she's not sure it's available because her employer stated in a letter that she was terminated months before her cancer diagnosis.
The insurance company hasn't yet explained how her case will be handled, she said, and the cancer has already spread to her glands.
She said doctors have told her she still needs chemotherapy to complete her treatment and she worries that will take her past the deadline to leave Canada.
"If I have to sleep on the streets, I will, but I won't go back," she said. "Jamaican health care is very, very, very bad."
She has six children, a fiancé, and two grandchildren in Jamaica.
She said she wants to live for them.
Although Burnett didn't work for four months from June to October, her employer, Balamore Farm Ltd. near Truro, allowed her to stay in staff housing at no charge.
On Oct. 6, she received a notice of termination from Balamore Farm saying her employment ended months before, on June 21, because of her health issues. The letter says she was provided a plane ticket to go home along with other foreign workers in her group.
"We have allowed her to remain in our housing until Oct. 12, 2022, but the job required of this group of temporary foreign workers of this location is complete, and they will all be returning to [Jamaica]," reads a letter from the owner of the farm, Joe Cooper.
Burnett didn't get on the flight home.
WARNING: This story contains profanity and details of racist language.
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