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Man who broke leg during confrontation with 'anti-gay evangelical bullies' in Vancouver receives thank you call from Trudeau, note from Canucks

"We know you made a tremendous sacrifice to be an ally."
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Photo: GoFundMe / Justin Morisette Recovery Fund

Although Justin Morissette considers himself an NDP voter, the Vancouver Sportsnet 650 host had only praise for Justin Trudeau on Wednesday. 

The Prime Minister gave Morissette a call after the Vancouverite suffered a broken leg while standing up to 'anti-gay evangelical bullies' in the West End on Saturday night, to thank him for his courage on behalf of the country.

On Twitter, Morisette said he "was really hoping to ask [Trudeau] to cancel rent while I had him on the line, but he was too affable and funny for me to yell at him about policy issues. I may be an NDP voter, but our PM's a pretty nice dude all told.

"On this, he gets it."

Trudeau also had some comforting words for Morisette, who said the PM acknowledged that the positive attention and gratitude Morisette is currently receiving must come alongside "a lot of nastiness from cruel people out to attack" him. It's a statement that Morisette admitted is "1000% true." 

The Prime Minister "was calling to tell me the good people of Canada who support me greatly outnumber them, & he wanted to thank me on their behalf. Appreciated," Morisette added. 


The replies to Morisette's Twitter thread were full of comments from people who praised the gesture, agreeing that while they may not share Trudeau's political opinions, they believe the Prime Minister to be "pretty decent dude." 




On Thursday, Morissette also shared another high-profile 'thank you' he received following the incident, this time in the form of a handwritten note from the Vancouver Canucks

In the note, which accompanied a Canucks jersey emblazoned with Morisette's name, Canucks' staff told Morissette they know he "made a tremendous sacrifice to be an ally," adding, "We applaud you for your courage and compassion and feel proud to have you apart of our Canucks family." 

Morisette's reaction to the gesture? "Ugly crying so hard," he wrote on Twitter. "God, I love this team so much." 

These high-profile expressions of gratitude accompany many other gestures from the community recently, thanking Morisette as he continues to recover in hospital. That includes one Twitter user who asked Morisette to name his favourite restaurant, "and basically had the entire menu delivered to my hospital room," Morisette shared. A GoFundMe campaign launched by Morisette's brother to help raise money for Morisette's recovery has also raised over $50,000 to date.