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Alcantara said her working conditions affected her “emotionally, physically, and financially.”

“I couldn’t afford to buy clothes for myself or a cup of coffee at Tim Hortons,” she said, adding that the dollar store “was like our survival store.”

Worker Joan Borromeo said Mantolino paid him less than an agreed hourly rate of $9.20 at his property cleaning service and charged him various fees including $500 for a work permit, $2,500 for an application for permanent residence, and a $1,000 bond that Mantolino said would be paid back, but wasn’t.

Borromeo, 38, said that as a result both he and his wife struggled financially and became emotionally “stressed and depressed.”

Adding to their stress was a six-week stay in a hospital ICU after the birth of child who needed open heart surgery.

“I am new here in Canada and I didn’t know that you can take a leave or a paternity leave even just for a few days,” said Borromeo.

Marivic Carrios and Amelita Dela Cruz also addressed the court.

Carrios, 39, said she couldn’t imagine that a fellow Filipino “can destroy our lives here in Canada.”

“Mr. Mantolino kept saying if I tell other people about his wrongdoing the Government of Canada will deport us to the Philippines,” she said.

Carrios then made an appeal to Justice Glen McDougall.

“It is imperative, my lord, that when you decide his sentence, you remember all the lives destroyed with a single act of greed. All of his victims suffered so much.”

Final submissions were supposed to be submitted by the federal Crown and defence on Thursday.

However, McDougall granted an adjournment after one of Mantolino’s lawyers, Lee Cohen, was unable to attend court after a development with a case he is also working on in Charlottetown.

The sentencing hearing is now scheduled to resume Jan. 4. when more victims are to give impact statements.

McDougall has said that once the hearing is concluded he will reserve his decision.