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 group says employees who aren’t fully vaccinated as of Oct. 12 will be placed on unpaid leave of absence. Vaccination will also be required for new hires, students and other personnel working with the companies.
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The BC Wildfire Service says some of the major blazes — such as White Rock Lake, Tremont Creek and Lytton Creek — were still classified as out of control.
That is particularly the case for a housing market made ever hotter by the pandemic that drove more Canadians to want bigger homes and bigger yards. For younger Canadians, and those with lower incomes the pre-pandemic pipe dream of home ownership was pushed even further out of reach.
There are 5,356 active cases of COVID-19 in the province and 154,669 people who tested positive have recovered. Of the active cases, 139 individuals are in hospital and 75 are in intensive care.
Fire and rescue personnel determined that one person had sustained "catastrophic" injuries, but it was still too dangerous to remove debris within the construction site in order to recover the body, Sgt. Peter DeVries said in an interview.
