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.
All provinces and territories have agreed to conform their proof-of-vaccine documents, or COVID-19 vaccine passports, to a national standard so that they can be used for international and domestic travel. The idea is that the standardized document will make it easier for travel authorities domestically and abroad to verify the vaccine status of Canadians.
On September 10, 2021, a substantial amount of cash was found in a box of clothing that had been donated to a thrift store located in the 10600 block of King George Boulevard. The employee who located the cash suspected it was inadvertently donated, so they turned it into police.
On September 8, four suspects kidnapped the victim from a vehicle at gunpoint in Richmond, B.C. The victim suffered significant, but non-life threatening injures after being assaulted and restrained.
The Canadian Institute for Climate Choices is warning in its publication Sink or Swim, that if these industries and federal and provincial governments don't acknowledge that change is coming and prepare for it, there could be devastating consequences.
The new Pew Research Center survey found 66 per cent of respondents in Canada were satisfied with how democracy is working, while 33 per cent said otherwise. Only Singapore, Sweden and New Zealand scored higher on the satisfaction scale.
The group, called Protect our Province B.C., is made up of a range of doctors and medical researchers, and held a panel discussion Wednesday highlighting how the virus is spread through aerosol transmission.
