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 Department of National Defence has confirmed one of those planes carrying Canadian diplomats and special forces troops landed in Ottawa while a second plane arrived in Toronto carrying Afghans who previously helped Canada in Afghanistan.
Justin Trudeau is coming out firing today against public servants who can get vaccinated and choose not to, telling them they'll face "consequences" for their decision. What those consequences are, the Liberal leader won't say.
The Regional District of Central Okanagan says it plans to contact individual property owners through the day to inform them about the state of their homes along the northwest side of Okanagan Lake.
Meng was arrested at Vancouver's airport in 2018 at the request of the United States, where she is wanted on fraud charges that both she and Huawei deny.
It’s believed dozens of young people had been partying in an outdoor area when a confrontation occurred between several people, possibly involving pepper spray and the use of racial slurs, before the stabbing happened.
Gurdeep Singh Mangat, 46, from the Punjabi-dominated city of Brampton in Toronto suburbs was arrested when he drove his commercial truck into Canada at the Blue Water Bridge entry point from the US.
