Most-read stories of the week: St. Patrick's Day in Waterloo, Trudeau in Guelph, defrauding doulas

Revellers take over Marshall Street in Waterloo for St. Patrick’s Day parties

What started as a rainy, quiet morning turned into a sea of green as thousands gathered on Marshall Street in Waterloo Friday to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day. The celebrations come after a couple of calmed-down years thanks to COVID-19, and this year, with the pandemic-related restrictions removed, the party was in full swing.

“Honestly, I’ll party in any weather, I don’t care,” one party-goer told CTV News.

CTV cameras captured one incident involving a person being handcuffed and placed in a police cruiser.

It wasn’t until the early afternoon, when the weather started to dry up, that large gatherings began to form.

Around 2:30 p.m., it appeared thousands of people had come to take part in the day as the parties spilled from inside into the streets. By 6 p.m., those in attendance started to break apart.

Justin Trudeau stops in Guelph to launch $4 billion housing fund

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau stopped in Guelph Friday to announce a $4 billion housing accelerator fund. Trudeau says the money will help eliminate barriers to create more homes, especially affordable units.

The announcement was made at Grace Garden in Guelph. The building, which used to be a motel, is currently being converted to affordable housing. Its 32 units are expected to be ready in two months.

The federal government says they’re aiming to fast track 100,000 homes in the next decade.

'Much bigger than people can even realize': Brantford woman charged with defrauding, harassing Ont. doulas

A 24-year-old woman from Brantford, Ont., is facing dozens of criminal charges, including harassment, fraud and sexual assault, after police say she sought the help of doulas for pregnancies and stillbirths that turned out to be fake.

Kaitlyn Braun is alleged to have misled numerous doulas – professionals who provide support during pregnancy, childbirth and the postpartum period – lying to them about being pregnant or carrying a stillborn, while falsely using their services.

Kitchener doula Amy Perry says she was introduced to Braun in November 2022 after Perry’s colleague, another doula in Stratford, reached out for help supporting a woman who said she was pregnant with a stillborn baby after a sexual assault.

Perry says what happened over the next eight days was more bizarre and more heinous than anything she’s experienced in her nearly six years as a doula.

Kaitlyn Braun appears in a photo posted to social media.

University of Guelph says $3M lawsuit should be 'struck in its entirety'

The University of Guelph says it believes a multimillion-dollar lawsuit filed by one of its tenured professors against the institution and its employees is “frivolous, vexatious and an abuse of process.” The university filed its statement of defence on March 3 in response to a lawsuit from Byram Bridle, a tenured professor at the University of Guelph’s Ontario Veterinary College.

Brindle launched a $3 million lawsuit against the university, a number of faculty and other individuals with the Ontario Superior Court of Justice on Dec. 19, 2022. None of the allegations have been tested in court.

Bridle alleged in his statement of claim he has suffered extensive damages, including, but not limited to, significant loss of standing as a virologist, immunologist, scientist and academic.

The University of Guelph is pictured above. (CTV)

7 victims connected to senior public school teacher charged with sexual assault, sexual interference

Waterloo regional police say there are seven victims involved in an ongoing investigation into a Kitchener senior public school teacher charged with multiple counts of sexual assault.

A spokesperson confirmed the number of victims in an email to CTV News on Friday.

Police charged the 52-year-old man – who taught at a senior public school in the Forest Hills area – with eight counts of sexual assault and sexual interference on Thursday, after reports of youths being sexually assaulted.

Police said officers received the reports on Feb. 2.