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.
Adrian Dix said 1,369 of the unvaccinated workers are in the Interior region of the province, which has a total of about 126,000 health-care workers, and that overall vaccination rates are also low in Northern health.
There are 4,829 active cases of COVID-19 in the province, and 195,646 people who tested positive have recovered. Of the active cases, 390 individuals are in hospital and 155 are in intensive care.
Bruce Ralston, the minister of energy, mines and low carbon innovation, says B.C.'s charger rebate program will receive $10 million as part of the budget this year to support installations of the charging stations.
Provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry says those groups and people who are most immunocompromised were vaccinated first and are getting to the point of waning immunity just ahead of flu season.
Michael Pickup says an audit of B.C.'s final budget accounting for the 2020-21 fiscal year under-reports revenues by $6 billion, which does not give a clear representation of the province's financial position.
Business and labour groups are urging the new federal cabinet to get to work on priority economic issues like the skilled labour shortage, supply chain issues, fixing employment insurance and ensuring an equitable recovery.
