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.
The border crossings in Windsor, Ont., Manitoba, Alberta and British Columbia have since been cleared using traditional police enforcement measures, while Ottawa remains clogged with protesters who drove in trucks nearly three weeks ago and have refused to leave.
In a debate in the House of Commons about a bill to regulate online streaming, Rodriguez says updating the broadcasting law is long overdue and needs to cover commercial content on social media and streaming platforms.
Isobel Mackenzie says nearly 26,000 seniors benefited from the generosity of over 13,000 volunteers as part of a provincially funded program that was expanded in March 2020 to boost services through community organizations.
Donald Farquhar told a B.C. Supreme Court trial for James that it was his legal opinion that all so-called table officers, who support the work of the clerk in the legislature, were eligible in 2011 for the retirement allowance, which has since been eliminated.
Staff at the school phoned the New Westminster Police Department to report that an unknown male exposed his genitals to a group of children on the school grounds. The suspect is described as a Caucasian man, between 40 to 50 years of age, standing 5’6” tall, with a medium build, balding dark hair, wearing a blue puffy jacket, dark blue jeans, and black shoes.
To further the investigation, the victim has been identified as 30-year-old Cody Corbett. Corbett is known to police. At this time, homicide investigators believe the stabbing was targeted and not random. There is also no known connection with the Lower Mainland gang conflict.
