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.
In 2020, as many Canadians had hours cut or lost their jobs completely during repeated lockdowns and forced closures, the highest-paid 100 CEOs at publicly traded companies earned an average of $10.9 million. That was down from the record high of $11.8 million in 2018, but an increase of $95,000 compared with 2019.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has joined the ranks of Canadians who are rolling up their sleeves for COVID-19 booster shots. Trudeau received his third shot at an Ottawa pharmacy this morning.
The 23-year-old suspect was shopping at a Robson Street grocery store Monday morning when a staff member noticed he wasn’t wearing a mask. When the employee insisted the shopper mask up, the man allegedly pulled a knife, threatened the worker, then left the store without paying for his groceries.
Conditions along the north and central coast also feel as cold as -20 C due to the wind chill, while winter storm watches warn of up to 20 centimetres of snow over northern Vancouver Island and the central coast through Thursday.
The association said 53 hummingbirds from the Lower Mainland were brought into its care during the last week of December when the temperature first plummeted, a drastic increase in comparison to the four birds it treated during the same time period a year earlier.
