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 BC Wildfire Service says the nearly 900-square-kilometre Sparks Lake fire burning north of Kamloops Lake and east of Cache Creek is being held as of Thursday, meaning suppression has been sufficient to ensure the blaze is not likely to spread beyond its boundaries under current and forecasted conditions.
The British Department for Transport says they will still need to take COVID-19 tests within three days before leaving for the U.K. and another one two days after arriving. The change will take effect Aug. 30 at 4 a.m.
The woman, who says her friends call her Zak, asked her full name not be revealed due to safety concerns.She says she tried to leave the country before the deadline, but was beaten by Taliban members and pushed away from the airport gates in Kabul.
Police say this kind of gold is a scrap metal removed from people's mouths by dentists, and investigators believe it may have been taken during a break-and-enter at a dental office or at the home of someone who had been collecting it.
. All three suspects were arrested and further investigation led to seizure of a loaded handgun. All three of the men were identified by police and have ties to gang activity in the lower mainland.
Canada's military mission in Afghanistan ended Thursday, leaving an unknown number of Canadians and their families trapped just hours before suicide bombers staged a "complex attack" on crowds at the airport in Kabul, killing more than a dozen U.S. soldiers and nearly 100 local Afghans.
