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 suspect is described as a 20-30 year old man with a darker complexion, black curly hair past his ears, medium build, approximately 5’10, and was wearing a grey hoody with baggy pants.
The study, conducted by researchers at the University of Toronto and published Tuesday in the Canadian Medical Association Journal, analyzed more than 212,000 cases of COVID-19 reported in Ontario between Feb. 7 and June 27, 2021.
The Canadian Federation of Independent Business says sentiment in its monthly barometer from September showed the largest one-month drops since the onset of the pandemic in March 2020.
Under legislation passed in 2015, each party's caucus is required to decide after an election whether it wants to empower its members to trigger a leadership review, which requires a written notice backed by at least 20 per cent of the caucus.
The Joint Rescue Co-ordination Centre confirmed Monday that the helicopter crashed at around 2 p.m. in the area near Killam Bay, at the entrance to Jervis Inlet, northeast of Sechelt.
There are 5,986 active cases of COVID-19 in the province, and 181,304 people who tested positive have recovered. Of the active cases, 326 individuals are in hospital and 142 are in intensive care. The remaining people are recovering at home in self-isolation.
