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 NDP leader says he would be open to a looser agreement to support legislation — such as measures to make housing more affordable — on a case-by-case basis.
While the agency does have decent measures for energy efficiency and overall energy performance of a building, he says there are other variables in assessing a home's environmental sustainability that have yet to be scoped.
The majority of the 30 countries included in the study received failing grades, with a median score of 48 out of 100. Canada hit 56 out of 100, with a lot of points deducted for how its drug policies disproportionately target racialized people.
The BC Coroners Service says 181 people died in August and 152 in September, record figures for both months, and it brings the number of fatalities since the start of the year to 1,534.
Officers in the West End re-arrested the 44-year-old thief Monday night, after he allegedly stole more than $730 in cosmetics from a department store on Robson Street. The man – who has 103 prior criminal convictions, including 38 for theft – was one of nine people arrested Monday as VPD continues to clampdown on shoplifters in the downtown core.
At 9:20 a.m., a bystander located the vehicle abandoned with the baby still inside the vehicle in the 5900-block of 177B Street. The baby was checked over by BC Emergency Health Services and was not physically injured. The family involved has been provided support through victim services.
