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.
If anything, Ng says, the shutdown proved the point she is constantly making to American colleagues: that the trade relationship between the U.S. and Canada is vitally important to the economy on both sides of the border.
"We are shutting down the EU airspace for Russians," Von der Leyen said in a statement on Sunday, "We are proposing a prohibition on all Russian-owned, registered or controlled aircraft."
There are 599 individuals hospitalized with COVID-19 and 96 are in intensive care. In the past 24 hours, 12 new deaths have been reported for an overall total of 2,851.
The video shows two men taking turns punching a man's face and kicking his head and stomach as he lies on the ground, while a group of onlookers watches and films the attack.
B.C. is working with the federal government and will support whatever sanctions Canada decides to impose to help condemn Russian actions, he said Friday.
Ukrainian-Canadian journalist and researcher Jane Lytvynenko says the internet has been flooded with confusing and misleading information about how the Russian attack on Ukraine is unfolding.
