Prime minister is asked to help with search for NFLD man who disappeared in B.C.

The case of a Newfoundland and Labrador man who recently went missing in British Columbia reached the prime minister Wednesday during a virtual town hall with members of Memorial University.

Memorial graduate Jordan Naterer, 25, was reported missing on Thanksgiving weekend after he didn’t return from a hike in E.C. Manning Provincial Park, 175 kilometres east of Vancouver.

Justin Dearing, the school’s sustainability officer, said he felt compelled to ask Justin Trudeau for help convincing police to resume their search for Naterer.

Authorities called off the search Saturday, but Naterer's father, Greg Naterer, dean of Memorial's faculty of engineering, has been imploring the Vancouver police to keep looking.

Trudeau told the town hall that Naterer's case reminded him of how he felt when the search was called off for his younger brother, Michel Trudeau, who was swept away by an avalanche in B.C. in 1998.

He said even as prime minister, he has limited power over a local search-and-rescue effort, but promised Dearing he’d see if there was something he could do.