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.
Canadian health leaders and some premiers have been publicly pressuring Health Canada to greenlight the medication, which prevents the SARS-CoV-2 virus that causes COVID-19 from reproducing within a patient's body. Pfizer's clinical trial showed for high-risk patients it prevented hospitalizations by about 90 per cent.
The disgraced Duke of York was the honorary colonel-in-chief of three Canadian regiments: The Royal Highland Fusiliers of Canada, The Princess Louise Fusiliers and the Queen's York Rangers.
There are currently 36,641 active cases of COVID-19 in the province and 246,693 people who tested positive have recovered. Of the active cases, 500 individuals are currently in hospital and 102 are in intensive care. The remaining people are recovering at home in self-isolation.
A statement from co-chairs Rozanne Helm and Colin Hansen of the party's election organizing committee says 3,025 memberships are undergoing confirmation reviews before those people will be allowed to vote in the leadership contest.
Environment Canada had warned this week's series of rain events would bring deluges of 50 to 150 millimetres over much of southern B.C., but preliminary measurements show conditions were not as intense.
Paramedics and medical dispatchers in B.C. responded to a record-setting 35,525 overdose calls last year. BC Emergency Health Services says paramedics attended an average of 97 overdose calls a day last year, a 31 per cent increase compared with 2020.
