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.
There are 5,458 active cases of COVID-19 in the province and 173,215 people who tested positive have recovered. Of the active cases, 324 individuals are in hospital and 157 are in intensive care. The remaining people are recovering at home in self-isolation.
Canada was to get 95 million doses of vaccine from Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna by the end of September, but is about 20 million doses shy of that as of Wednesday.
The report from Thompson Rivers University in Kamloops, B.C., makes six recommendations, including ensuring remote and Indigenous communities have robust communications systems in place where emergency officials can relay fast and accurate information about wildfires.
Former parliamentary budget officer Kevin Page says the Liberals may want to release the document in November and use it to introduce some spending and tax measures.
Mail ballots have to be carefully checked to ensure they have been signed and that people have not already voted in person, or sent in more than one ballot by post.
A woman in her 20s was stabbed and killed near the Lynn Valley library branch on March 27. Six other people, ranging in age from 22 to 78, were also hurt.
