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.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says the agreement will have no impact on the Five Eyes partnership, which comprises the three AUKUS players, plus Canada and New Zealand.
Health Canada points out the vaccines themselves are not changing — only the names are. The new names are already being used for promotional purposes in the EU and the United States.
The schools include University of Alberta and MacEwan University in Edmonton, the University of Lethbridge, Mount Royal University in Calgary and the University of Calgary.
David Shearing, who now goes by the name David Ennis, shot and killed George and Edith Bentley; their daughter, Jackie; and her husband Bob Johnson, while the family was on a camping trip in 1982 near Wells Gray Provincial Park, about 120 kilometres north of Kamloops, B.C.
The awareness course will educate new MPs on what counts as harassment — and how to take steps to prevent it. The course, paid for by the House of Commons, will address many forms of harassment, as well as violence prevention and the abuse of power by MPs.
The federal government said a long-term boil-water advisory for the community, which was issued in 1998 and was one of the longest in Canada, had been lifted.
