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.
Mike Farnworth is asking residents to pay close attention to the weather forecast as more storms are expected after a so-called atmospheric river dumped an unprecedented amount of rain on the southwest part of the province.
The Union of Veterans' Affairs Employees made its request in a letter to Veterans Affairs Minister Lawrence MacAulay this week after The Canadian Press reported this month on the large number of veterans assigned to individual case managers.
Canada had rejected hundreds of thousands of doses of the vaccine this past summer due to contamination concerns about the plant, and only imported Johnson & Johnson doses, also known as Janssen, manufactured in Europe.
Conservative Leader Erin O'Toole and his caucus put on a show of solidarity today, exactly a week after he was explaining why he decided to kick out a senator for publicly denouncing his leadership. O'Toole was presented with a hockey jersey that British Columbia MP Bob Zimmer says came from caucus "to our captain."
The Greens will tonight choose an interim leader to take the helm of their troubled party, following the resignation of Annamie Paul. Paul Manly, the former MP who lost his British Columbia seat in the election, is the favourite to take on the challenge.
The College of Immigration and Citizenship Consultants officially opened on Nov. 23, and replaces the previous regulator, the Immigration Consultants of Canada Regulatory Council.
