#52: COME LET US KILL HIM 🍇

🚓 CRIME - 2 women wanted for robbing Guelph store, beating up employee, pulling out her hair

🏥 HEALTHCARE - ‘It’s unbelievable’: Bipolar Toronto woman demands MAID despite legal barriers

🏚️ HOUSING CRISIS - BC man attacked by housesitters after returning home: RCMP

Good morning.

Smalltown Graffiti is 1 year old. 🎂 

We’ve come a long way since ISSUE #1: FENTANYL CHICKEN.

Thanks to all of you who have stuck around since then.

And welcome to those of you who are new here.

This week, we cover an interesting story of a BC man who entrusted his property to housesitters while he travelled out of the country.

He returned home to find the housesitters lying in wait for him…

Scroll down to story #3 for the full scoop.

Enjoy.

-Peter

⌛️ Today’s read is 1.5 minutes long.

Police are searching for two women who allegedly assaulted a store employee and a bystander while robbing a store in Guelph, ON, last Friday.

Police say the incident began just after 7 PM when a staff member watched two women remove security tags from merchandise and hide the items inside their bags.

When the women left the building, the employee followed them outside to confront them about the stolen items.

The encounter turned violent when one woman struck the employee in the face multiple times and pulled a clump of hair from her head. During the struggle, the employee’s glasses fell to the ground, where the second woman stepped on and shattered them.

A customer who stepped in to help the employee was also attacked. Authorities confirmed that while the physical confrontation was significant, neither the employee nor the witness required medical treatment.

The two suspects fled the scene on bicycles.

Investigators describe the first woman as white with short dark hair. At the time of the incident, she wore a grey hoodie under a black winter jacket, grey track pants, and black and white shoes. She carried a black Nike backpack and wore a baseball cap.

The second woman is described as white with long purple hair. She wore a blue coat and black pants and also carried a backpack.

Claire Elyse Brosseau wants to die.

The 49-year-old Toronto woman has suffered for decades with a series of mental health diseases, including Bipolar 1 disorder, post-traumatic stress disorder, and disordered eating.

“I wake up in the morning and the minute I open my eyes, I feel just a sense of… dread and panic,” she told CBC News.

Under current Canadian legislation, Brosseau is ineligible for medical assistance in dying (MAID) because her suffering stems solely from mental illness.

While the federal government initially planned to expand eligibility to include mental health conditions, it has delayed the transition twice.

The Special Joint Committee on Medical Assistance in Dying is currently advising Ottawa on how to handle eligibility for those suffering from mental illness, but Brosseau says she feels excluded from the legislative process.

“It’s unbelievable that we’re not part of this conversation at all,” she said. “I don’t understand how they can just build this policy about us, without us.”

Since its legalization in 2016, MAID has been used by more than 76,000 people across Canada. The system currently operates on two tracks.

Track 1 is reserved for patients whose natural deaths are considered reasonably foreseeable. Track 2 applies to those who are seriously ill but not terminal.

A BC man was attacked earlier this month by his housesitters after returning home from a trip abroad.

According to RCMP, a man had entrusted his rural property in Eagle Bay, BC, to two housesitters while he travelled out of the country for two months.

When the man returned on April 5, he found “a lot of damage to the property.”

Furthermore, the housesitters had not left as planned. They were waiting for the man in a car.

Police say the housesitters yelled at the man from inside their car, which was parked about three metres away from him.

The driver of the car "gunned it," say police. He allegedly hit the man and sent him flying through the air.

“[The man] landed on his head, and the vehicle drove away,” say RCMP.

Officers located and arrested the driver on April 7.

47-year-old Clinton Wells faces several charges, including assault with a weapon, uttering threats to cause bodily harm or death, dangerous operation of a conveyance, and failing to stop after causing bodily harm.