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.
British Columbia's health minister says the province is "ahead of the curve" on recommendations by a national advisory group that Canadians ages 50 and older get a COVID-19 booster. Adrian Dix says his ministry announced weeks ago that it would start its booster program and already 470,000 people have had a third shot.
But Selina Robinson says the effects of the floods and extreme weather may affect the government's bottom line after she met today with the Economic Forecast Council, a 13-member private-sector group that is giving her advice before next spring's budget.
There are currently 3,071 active cases of COVID-19 in the province, and 214,047 people who tested positive have recovered. Of the active cases, 276 individuals are currently in hospital and 95 are in intensive care. The remaining people are recovering at home in self-isolation.
Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault says the new federal climate plan won't be ready until the end of March. The net-zero accountability law passed in June requires the government to make public a greenhouse-gas emissions reduction plan for 2030 within six months.
Caroline McDonald-Harker, a professor in the department of sociology and anthropology at Mount Royal University in Calgary, has studied the impacts of extensive flooding in southern Alberta in 2013 and the 2016 Fort McMurray wildfire.
Statistics Canada says the economy added 154,000 jobs in November as the labour market showed more signs it's returning to pre-pandemic levels. The unemployment rate fell to 6.0 per cent last month compared with 6.7 per cent in October.
