Ottawa, June 24 (IANS) Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has denied meddling in an investigation into the 2020 mass shooting, the worst the country's history.
Brenda Lucki, head of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP), has been accused of pressuring local officers to help advance Trudeau's gun control plans, the BBC quoted the Halifax Examiner as saying, which was the first to report on the development.
According to the Halifax Examiner, the accusation stemmed from notes made by a local RCMP officer, released as part of a public investigation into the mass shooting on April 18-19, 2020, during which a gunman posing as a police officer killed 22 people in Nova Scotia.
The suspect died in a stand-off with police.
Addressing reporters on Thursday, Trudeau said that his government "did not put any undo influence or pressure" on police.
"It is extremely important to highlight that it is only the RCMP, it is only police that determine what and when to release information," the BBC quoted the Prime Minister as saying.
Denying the accusations, Commissioner Lucki said in a statement released on Tuesday that information sharing between the federal government and police is normal during a high-profile event such as a mass shooting.
The RCMP chief however acknowledged that she "should have been more sensitive" in her approach.
Canada's opposition Conservative Party has called for a debate in the House of Commons, and a parliamentary committee voted on Thursday to hold a hearing into the matter.
In the wake of the deadliest rampage in Canadian history, Prime Minister Trudeau in May 2020 announced an immediate ban on the sale, transportation, importation, or use of some 1,500 makes and models of "military-grade assault-style" weapons.
There are 290 individuals hospitalized with COVID-19 and 46 are in intensive care. In the past 24 hours, six new deaths have been reported, for an overall total of 2,966.
Speaking at the University of Toronto's Munk School of Global Affairs and Public Policy, Joly said there are new challenges on the world stage after Russian President Vladimir Putin decided to start a war against Ukraine.
B.C.'s budget released last month allocated $145 million over three years for Emergency Management BC and the BC Wildfire Service to kick-start the province's transition to a more "proactive approach" to wildfire preparedness and response.
One of the suspects followed the victim to the SkyTrain entrance and pushed him down a flight of stairs. As the victim was laying on the ground, the suspect allegedly kicked the victim before a passersby intervened. The suspect fled the area before police arrived.
Four-fifths of respondents to the Leger poll had started or planned to buy cheaper items at the grocery store to save on food bills, and cut back on how much food they throw out to stretch every dollar.
New data from Statistics Canada show the number of hate crimes reported to police across the country went up 37 per cent in the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic compared with the previous year. The agency says 2,669 hate crimes were reported in 2020 — the highest number since comparable data became available in 2009.
