Latest news with #Neufeld
Global News
3 days ago
- Global News
Questions being raised about police response to Halifax university lockdown
One day after an armed robbery prompted a lockdown at Mount Saint Vincent University and a heavy police presence, questions are being raised about whether the response was appropriate. At around 1 p.m. Thursday, Halifax Regional Police, RCMP and EHS responded to second-hand reports of a robbery at the university cafe. Students were told to shelter in place while police arrived on the scene with tactical equipment and drones. Get daily National news Get the day's top news, political, economic, and current affairs headlines, delivered to your inbox once a day. Sign up for daily National newsletter Sign Up By providing your email address, you have read and agree to Global News' Terms and Conditions and Privacy Policy 'It didn't seem like the type of thing I would imagine to happen at the Mount,' said student Erika Neufeld. Neufeld had a friend on campus at the time and was growing increasingly worried about her safety. 'She was just leaving so thankfully she wasn't caught up in any of it, but she said it was looking pretty scary and I was obviously concerned about what could be happening,' she said. Story continues below advertisement Halifax Regional Police defend the scale of response. 'It's always good and appropriate to be upfront, just in case, right? Always good. Safety first. Remember, safety always first, we can always draw back and that's exactly what happened yesterday,' said Const. Paul DesRochers. 'Any time that the police received information on any incident that could involve weapons, we're not sure, we would conduct the appropriate response in relation to such an incident.' For more on this story, watch the video above.
Calgary Herald
08-05-2025
- Calgary Herald
'It's not like I'm new here': Calgary's new police Chief Katie McLellan credits experience for landing role
Article content 'It's about what you are doing every day to make a difference' Article content In 2013, she left the CPS as a senior superintendent to work as a security consultant in the oil and gas sector, saying at the time she'd achieved all she could in the ranks of law enforcement. Article content But that was not to be as McLellan joined the Alberta RCMP in 2018 to lead its Federal Policing South, Serious and Organized Crime. Article content The following year, she was back with CPS and was deputy chief, leading the investigative support section. She was chosen as chief quickly following Neufeld's abrupt exit last week. Article content Last year, her contract with the CPS was extended with the support of her predecessor. Article content It's that experience and versatility that's proven key in McLellan becoming the city's top police officer, she said. Article content 'I've been in almost every area (of the CPS) — I've watched the ebbs and flows,' she said earlier this week. Article content Article content McLellan, 57, is also the CPS's second female chief, following in the footsteps of Christine Silverberg, who donned the role from 1995 to 2000. Article content Article content But the new chief said she doesn't view her promotion — and experience within the CPS — through a gender lens. Article content 'It's not about being male or female, it's about being competent,' she said in 2013. Article content 'For me, it's not about rank, it's about what you are doing every day to make a difference. I'm just one of thousands in here, the job doesn't get done by one person.' Article content McLellan could become permanent chief, says criminologist Article content On Wednesday, McLellan said that 'technically' she is an interim chief, but because there's no active search for a permanent one, she's Calgary's top cop indefinitely. Article content It's possible she could eventually be supplanted, but keeping her on a long-term basis would be a good thing, said Mount Royal University criminologist Doug King. Article content 'She's a really, really wise choice — I wouldn't be surprised if she becomes the (permanent) chief,' he said. Article content 'She certainly does have the breadth of experience, she's done virtually everything a police officer can do as she's moved up the ranks.' Article content Article content Her role as head of field operations was so important, given its connections to the CPS's bread and butter front-line policing, meaning 'she was basically a co-chief at that point because of all the responsibility,' said King. Article content And that rap sheet, he said, puts her in good standing with the rank and file, which could mean their support, which is crucial. Article content 'It means she feels very comfortable in the uniform, as did Neufeld, who was always wearing the uniform,' said King. Article content McLellan said her first priority as the new chief is ensuring the security for the G7 summit in Kananaskis, which is expected to generate considerable related activity in Calgary, including protests.
Calgary Herald
06-05-2025
- Politics
- Calgary Herald
Councillors receive private update, but stay mum on police chief's abrupt resignation
Calgary city council received a behind-closed-doors update Tuesday on the recent resignation of police Chief Mark Neufeld, but stayed mum afterward on the reasons for his abrupt, mid-contract departure. Article content Article content The private discussion came four days after the Calgary police commission announced the sudden resignation of Neufeld, who was appointed to lead the Calgary Police Service in 2019. Neufeld's contract with CPS had been extended in 2023 by three years, with the intention of keeping him at the helm of the city's police force until 2027. Article content Article content Neufeld's sudden departure has raised eyebrows, particularly considering he had two years left on his contract and the fact that CPS will be heavily involved with security operations for the upcoming G7 Summit in Kananaskis Country next month. Article content Article content No reason was given for his resignation in the commission's announcement last week. Neufeld, quoted in that announcement, stated it was 'an honour and pleasure' to serve Calgarians for the past six years. Article content Ward 7 Coun. Terry Wong, one of two councillors who sit on the police commission, said that Neufeld, like anyone, is entitled to make his own career choices. Article content 'We'll leave that up to the chief to decide in the future what his career directions are,' Wong told reporters. 'As a commission, we were not there to second-guess his choices.' Article content He added the commission hasn't met since receiving notice of Neufeld's departure and noted the police oversight body's next meeting is scheduled for May 28. Article content Article content Neufeld will be replaced by Katie McLellan as Calgary's interim police chief. Council ratified her appointment unanimously after their in-camera discussion Tuesday. Article content Article content Due to a number of significant police-related events this spring, the commission said the search for Neufeld's permanent replacement will not begin immediately. Article content The search for a new permanent chief will likely take a few months, according to Wong. Article content 'From the citizens' perspective, I know people are asking, what next?' he said. 'We've got G7 and (the Rotary International Convention) coming, Stampede coming. We've been very assured that our executive police service are definitely prepared for all those events and Calgarians shouldn't feel any less secure about it.'
Global News
06-05-2025
- Business
- Global News
U.S. tariffs drive up prices for baby goods as more families turn to B.C. charity for help
A B.C. charity that provides gently used and new baby gear to families in need is worried about the effects of U.S. President Donald Trump's tariffs on essential baby products. BabyGoRound said it is now seeing some of the first confirmed price spikes, directly blamed on trade disruptions. About 80 per cent of all baby products, including strollers and car seats, bottles and toys, are made in China. While some of those products are imported into Canada directly, most of them come from U.S. distributors and it is now charging its 145 per cent import tax. The non-profit anticipates multiple things will happen due to these tariffs, the first being an increase in the number of families in need. The charity said it has already seen this happening. Story continues below advertisement From March 3 to April 20, 2024, the charity served 197 families. From March 2 to April 19, 2025, it helped 267 families, which is already a 35-per cent increase from the previous year. The charity said it has already seen a 150 per cent increase in families turning to BabyGoRound for help over the last three years, and this is only going to climb if gear becomes unaffordable for even more families. According to the charity's spring survey, 58 per cent of their parents said they have had to occasionally miss meals, or other daily needs, in order to save money to provide for their baby. 2:09 Impact on B.C. film industry as Trump puts tariffs on 'foreign-made' films Meghan Neufeld, executive director of BabyGoFound, told Global News that one of the biggest items impacted would be strollers. Story continues below advertisement 'We do end up purchasing some items,' she said. Get daily National news Get the day's top news, political, economic, and current affairs headlines, delivered to your inbox once a day. Sign up for daily National newsletter Sign Up By providing your email address, you have read and agree to Global News' Terms and Conditions and Privacy Policy 'We have donor-directed funding. Strollers is a big one that we spend a lot of money on. We distributed 752 strollers last year, but 110 of them were purchased.' Neufeld said that while they do get distributor pricing, with the tariffs increasing the cost, it could mean thousands of dollars extra a year just to purchase items that families need. The charity also recently had a deal fall through with a brand following the Feb. 1 announcement from the Trump administration about tariffs. Neufeld said they had connected with the brand late last year and came to a distributor price agreement at the end of January. But when they reached out in February to finalize the purchase, they have not heard back. 'We have followed up February, March and April with no success,' she said. 'So we were trying to purchase 50 travel systems, so stroller and car seat combos. And now our concern is that we are also gonna have to pay that increased cost on those pieces because it is one of the brands that has announced an increase as of May.' 1:34 New auto tariffs to impact car prices in B.C. Neufeld said some brands are increasing prices by $50 a piece, some as much as $160 a piece. Story continues below advertisement 'So for example, UPPAbaby has an infant car seat that's going from $400 to $560 a piece,' she said. 'And so depending on the item, it's gonna be anywhere between $7,500 a year, could be as much as $15,000 for us.' Neufeld said they don't have that kind of money, and they are worried that families will potentially turn to unsafe items, such as car seats they don't know the history of or strollers that have defects. 'When car seats are legally required to leave the hospital and families can't afford them, where are they gonna go?' she said. Neufeld said they work hard to make sure families have what they need and everyone is feeling the financial pinch right now. 'This is a Mother's Day gift that nobody really wants, right? 'So it's an especially hard time for all families. Everything's going up, everything from, like I said, strollers and car seats, but cribs, high chairs — it's all going up. 'And it potentially means that children just don't have the developmental toys or these things that people may not see as essential, but it does really help a child and a family.'
Hamilton Spectator
05-05-2025
- General
- Hamilton Spectator
‘A day to never forget': Niagara's Lincoln and Welland Regiment played key role in Dutch liberation
It has been 80 years since Canadian forces accepted the surrender of the German army in the Netherlands on May 5, 1945, ending five years of Nazi occupation. Members of the Lincoln and Welland Regiment were part of the First Canadian Army, which played a pivotal role in that country's liberation from the Nazis in the Second World War. The Lincoln and Welland troops were battle hardened by the time they arrived at the Dutch-Belgian border. Members of the Lincoln and Welland Regiment take cover from German sniper fire in northwest Europe in 1945. They were part of the fierce fighting at the Falaise Gap, south of Caen in France, in late August 1944 when the Allies encircled retreating German troops and closed the gap they had been moving through. 'When they landed in France in July 1944, they would have been pushing west through Belgium and eventually into the Netherlands which would have been in the fall of 1944,' said Drew Neufeld, a master warrant officer and regimental historian with Lincoln and Welland Regiment. Unknown members of the Lincoln and Welland Regiment in the Netherlands sometime between 1944 and 1945 In October 1944, the Niagara regiment played a significant role in the Battle of the Scheldt, a crucial campaign to open the Scheldt estuary, a river that borders Belgium and the Netherlands with its mouth at the North Sea. 'It was very important that they opened the Scheldt estuary to be able to supply the soldiers efficiently,' Neufeld said. During the Battle of the Scheldt, the Lincoln and Welland group helped liberate Bergen op Zoom , a town just north of the Scheldt. A zoom is a canal or waterway. 'Press On' upon its arrival at the Lake Street Armoury in March 1945. The officer standing next to the tank is Major Edward J. Brady DSO. (B Company Officer Commanding). 'A lot of the company commanders will say it was the worst experience,' Neufeld said. 'The whole liberation, too, was kind of an anomaly where the commander of the German army at the time made a deal with the mayor (of the town), saying, 'If you don't give away our position and help the Allies, we won't destroy the (town), we will move to the north which would be the canal and we'll keep the fighting to the outskirts of the (town) and not really destroy the main part.'' Neufeld noted. In his book ' Because We Are Canadians: A Battlefield Memoir ,' Sgt. Charles Kipp with the Lincoln and Welland Regiment recalls planning of the siege of Bergen op Zoom took place in the basement of a home near the town that was owned by a Mr. Luijten, an English professor who acted as an interpreter for the Canadians. Their conversation inspired the title of Kipp's book. Following preparation discussions, Kipp says a toast was raised to the success of the coming battle, and their host asked why they appeared so steady and not nervous about what was to come. 'Because we are Canadians,' Kipp and his colleagues replied. This year marks the 80th anniversary of the freeing of Bergen Op Zoom by the Lincoln and Welland Kipp writes the Lincoln and Welland soldiers made their way into the town during the night on Oct. 18, swimming across the zoom and making their way to the top of a dyke and along a rail line that ran across it. Creeping along in the darkness, they came under machine gunfire. 'It was devastating,' Kipp writes. 'I could see and hear men going down all around me, but for some reason I was not hit.' Drew Neufeld, master warrant officer and regimental historian with Lincoln and Welland Regiment, in front of 'Press On' at the Lake Street Armoury. The Canadians escaped down the side of the dyke, back into the zoom. 'The sky over our heads was one big sheet of flames from the German guns,' Kipp writes. The surviving soldiers eventually made their way to an eight-foot-high wall outside a gin factory. 'Out of our entire company of about 30 strong, 13 men got into the factory,' Kipp said. The Canadians fought room to room and in the hallways, shooting in the darkness. 'We were just running all over and shooting everything we could see,' Kipp writes. 'It was pitch dark. The only light came from the muzzle flashes of the guns.' Of the 13 Lincoln and Welland soldiers who had made it to the gin factory, Kipp said only eight were left when the fighting was over. On Oct. 27, 1944, Bergen op Zoom was liberated by the Canadians. Neufeld said the Lincoln and Welland Regiment fought so fiercely in its push through the Netherlands, it gained a reputation for toughness among the enemy. 'One of my favourite quotes during that time was from a German prisoner who said, 'The Lincoln and Welland Regiment has no sentiment, no discipline and no mercy' because they were so tenacious and determined to meet their objectives,' Neufeld said. 'They effectively pushed their way through the Netherlands, along with the rest of the Canadian Army and Allied forces, into Germany.' The push through the Netherlands was a slow and bloody slog. 'I can only imagine the hardships and struggles they would have went through,' Neufeld said. '(They saw) the best and worst of humanity.' By the time the Netherlands was liberated on May 5, 1945, more than 7,600 Canadians had died in the eight months of fighting it took to get there. Days later, Germany formally surrendered, ending the Second World War in Europe. 'The Dutch people cheered Canadian troops as one town after another was liberated,' states a Canadian government website detailing Canada's involvement in the liberation of the Netherlands. 'This was a memorable time for the people of the Netherlands.' Jack Sinke was a six-year-old boy in the Netherlands when the Germans invaded in May 1940. Jack Sinke was a six-year-old boy when the Germans invaded the Netherlands in May 1940. He recalls being in awe of the invaders. 'It was kind of exciting at first,' said the 91-year-old Vineland resident whose family lived on a farm near the Belgian border. 'At first, the Germans were friendly, but later on we heard about concentration camps and stuff like that, then I looked at them like enemies.' In a 2011 letter to his grandchildren, Sinke recalled the Germans taking most of the locals' food and raiding store shelves and sending all the clothing and other materials back to Germany. 'My father raised pigs, but was only allowed to keep two for his own family,' the letter says. 'All the others he had to sell to the Germans for a cheap price.' Sinke's letter recalls the time his father was confronted by two German soldiers who came to the house demanding he hand over his two remaining pigs, but his father refused. 'The German shifted a bit, pretended to loosen his gun and said, 'If you don't give us those pigs, we will take your children,'' the letter says. 'Then my dad lost his temper and screamed, 'If you touch my children, I will kill you.'' Sinke says he got scared and hid behind his mother's skirt. Then it got quiet, and he looked to see the German soldiers leaving without the pigs. Sinke said he was 10 years old in the fall of 1944 when residents in his area got word the Canadian Army was pushing into the Netherlands from Belgium. 'The Canadians were going to free us,' said Sinke, who recalls hearing the Allied gunfire in the distance and squadrons of Allied bombers flying over their house, en route to targets in Germany. 'The glass in the windows rattled,' he said. By early November 1944, his village had been liberated. 'We were so happy,' Sinke said. Engelbert Marinus points to the house he and his family lived in when the Netherlands were liberated by Canadians on May 5, 1945. Engelbert Marinus was born in Soestdijk, southeast of Amsterdam, in 1938. He noted the nearby airport was a frequent target of attack because it was wanted by both the Germans and the Allies. 'Most of my early life was dangerous and scary,' Marinus recalled. The former Grimsby resident who now lives in Stoney Creek said the family later moved to Ootmarsom , near the German border, where he started school. Marinus recalled the Canadians and other Allies appearing in the forests around the city. Liberation was at hand. 'There were Canadians, English, Polish, American and Australian camps meeting there,' said Marinus, who recalled visiting each of the camps and getting to try their food. 'I was welcomed as a kid,' he said. Marinus noted May 5 remains a special day for Dutch people. 'For me, it is a day to never forget,' he said. A reminder of the Lincoln and Welland Regiment's service in the Second World War sits in front of the Lake Street Armoury in St. Catharines. The M5A1 Stuart VI recce tank came into the regiment's possession in late February 1945. A St. Catharines Standard article from March 7, 1946, (the day after its arrival at the armoury after being transported to St. Catharines on the back of a flat rail car) noted the tank had been with one of the armoured units of the British Columbia Tank Regiment, but was disabled after it ran over a mine on the edge of the Hochwald Forest near the Dutch-German border. ''Gosh, I'd like to have that,' said Lt. Col. Rowan C Coleman, DSO, then commander of the Lincs,' the article says. ''OK, it's yours,' came the prompt reply.' The article says members of the regiment's pioneer platoon started swarming over the tank. 'In no time at all, they had ripped off the turret and gun, lightening the tank by four tons. It was rewired and repaired, and the limbering battlewagon came out of its death throes as a trim, speedy reconnaissance carrier,' the article states. On the front of the tank was 'Press On' — one of the favourite expressions of Lt-Gen Guy Simond, acting commander of the 1st Canadian Army, to encourage his troops in battle — painted in large white letters. The article noted when Press On arrived in St. Catharines, it was covered in flags and signatures. 'There are the flags of the countries touched by the tank: Canada, France, Belgium, Holland and, finally, Germany. Then there are autographs, dozens of them. Many boys from St. Catharines and other points in the Niagara district painted their names on the tank for posterity,' the article says. may 5 remains a special day on the calendar in the Netherlands, where the liberations is celebrated as a national holiday and the sacrifices of Allied soldiers, particularly Canadians, are remembered.
