Nature non-profit wants Canadians to grab cameras and get outside this weekend

OTTAWA – Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is suddenly without the assistance of one of his longest advisers just as the threat of being forced into an early election has been heightened.

Jeremy Broadhurst resigned as the Liberal Party of Canada’s national campaign director today, one day after NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh ended the agreement supporting the Liberals on key votes.

In a statement on his decision to resign, which was first reported by the Toronto Star, Broadhurst cited the toll two decades and five national campaigns have taken on himself and his family.

He says the upcoming federal election could be the most critical federal campaign of his life, and the party deserves a campaign director who can bring more energy and devotion to the job.

Broadhurst has been a Liberal staffer in some form for the better part of 25 years, serving multiple times as chief of staff or adviser to several leaders and cabinet ministers.

Broadhurst was national director of the Liberal Party of Canada from 2013 to 2015 and helped retool the Liberal data machine into an operation that helped them win the 2015 election.

He worked in the Prime Minister’s Office after the 2015 win, and in 2019 was elevated to campaign director.

He returned to the campaign director post for the 2023 election a year ago, but gave up the post Thursday.

The next election has to be held by next fall, but with the Liberal-NDP confidence and supply agreement no longer in place, the odds are higher that the government will be voted down in Parliament before then.

The Liberals have trailed the Conservatives in polls by double-digits for almost a year and would lose if an election were held now.

In his statement, Broadhurst took an apparent swipe at the Conservatives, saying Canadians will have to decide whether to elect a party that is “banking on the assumption that Canadians are willing to forsake our commitment to fairness, equality, justice and progress for an agenda that is little more than simple slogans and cheap shots.”

He said Canadians will have to decide what kind of politics they want “before it is too late to stop at our border a brand of politics that stokes fears and seeks to divide us.”

Broadhurst said he is “still committed to the Liberal Party of Canada and to the Prime Minister,” but that it is “time to make way for others.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 5, 2024.

The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.

SASKATOON – A 15-year-old girl is in hospital with serious injuries after she was lit on fire at a Saskatoon high school, police said Thursday.

Sgt. Ken Kane told reporters that a school resource officer, who was at Evan Hardy Collegiate for a different matter, apprehended a 14-year-old girl as a suspect.

He did not say how the victim was lit on fire or the extent of her injuries.

Saskatoon Public Schools said staff members who tried to help the injured student were also hurt and sent to hospital. It said the suspect is also a student.

The school was closed for the rest of the day, and classes were cancelled for Friday.

“This incident resulted in serious injuries to the student and to the staff members that intervened. The injured persons were transported to hospital,” a school division spokesperson said in an emailed statement.

“We are grateful to the Evan Hardy staff for their immediate response and acknowledge it was a traumatic incident for the entire school community. We are providing supports to students and staff.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 5, 2024.

The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.

VANCOUVER – A 34-year-old man has been charged with second-degree murder and aggravated assault over what police called a pair of stranger attacks in downtown Vancouver on Wednesday.

Vancouver police said in a statement that Brendan Colin McBride remained in custody until his next court appearance on Sept. 18.

Police also identified the man who died as 70-year-old Francis David Laporte.

Officers said the first attack occurred early Wednesday morning near Richards and Dunsmuir streets, where a man had his hand severed by his assailant.

Police said they aren’t identifying that victim for privacy reasons and he remained in hospital.

While officers were investigating the first attack, police said Laporte was killed outside the nearby Queen Elizabeth Theatre at West Georgia and Hamilton streets.

Vancouver Police Chief Const. Adam Palmer said Wednesday that McBride, who had not been identified at the time, was on probation for a 2023 assault and had 60 previous police interactions.

Court documents show McBride was most recently sentenced to 18 months of probation in April over an assault that occurred in White Rock, B.C., last September

McBride was earlier sentenced to 12 months of probation in July 2022, stemming from a charge of assault causing bodily harm in January 2021.

Four other convictions, dating back to 2012, were all traffic violations.

Palmer said Wednesday that McBride was located near Vancouver’s Olympic Village less than two hours after the attacks with the help of a police drone operator.

The VPD chief had said police were looking into whether mental health was a factor in the attacks, calling the suspect “very troubled” with a history of assaulting officers and health care workers.

A single charge of resisting a peace officer in September 2023 did not result a conviction for McBride, court records show.

Wednesday’s gruesome attack spurred a call from Port Coquitlam, B.C., mayor Brad West for a mental hospital to replace the Riverview facility that closed in 2012.

“Closing Riverview Hospital was a historically stupid decision,” West said in a post on social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter. “The evidence is all around us and, sadly, plays out through repeated tragedies.”

Palmer said Wednesday that while such high-profile crimes “cause everyone to fear for their safety,” statistics show crime trending down in Vancouver.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 5, 2024.

The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.