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 Green party is looking for an interim leader to take the helm before a fresh leadership election among its members. The troubled party, which has been beset by infighting and sniping, has accepted the resignation of Annamie Paul who last week stepped down.
Officers were called to Davie and Thurlow streets in response to a two-car collision between a Dodge Ram and a Toyota Prius. The impact of that collision resulted in the Dodge Ram skidding and hitting a wheelchair-bound man on the sidewalk of the intersection.
The James Webb Space Telescope is scheduled to blast off Dec. 18 aboard the Ariane 5 rocket from the Guiana Space Center in French Guiana. The orbiting infrared observatory, a collaboration between NASA and the European and Canadian space agencies, will be 100 times more powerful than its predecessor, the Hubble Space Telescope launched in 1990.
Wilkinson is three weeks removed from the cabinet shuffle that made him the fourth natural resources minister in the last six years. Now after helming the environment department tasked with combating climate change, he's in charge of the department that regulates and promotes many of the products that cause it.
Mélanie Joly is in Mexico City for meetings with counterpart Marcelo Ebrard before travelling to Washington, D.C., for the so-called Three Amigos summit Thursday.
Health Canada says it has received a submission from Moderna to authorize use of its COVID-19 vaccine for children aged 6 to 11. The agency says it will prioritize the review of the submission, while maintaining high scientific standards for safety, efficacy and quality.
