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.
Robert Frater told a B.C. Supreme Court judge that Meng Wanzhou, Huawei's chief financial officer, gave an "artful" presentation to HSBC in 2013 that amounted to fraud.
Provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry says people living in such settings are at particular risk to COVID-19 and transmission from unvaccinated people has led to outbreaks.
The Campaign is called Reach which stands for Realize, Educate, Accept, Communicate a Help in order to create a greater awareness and share available resources. This initiative of PICS is to address the issue of illicit drug dose deaths in BC as well as the ongoing gang conflict.
The package included the government taking a six per cent stake in the airline for $500 million, plus offering about $4 billion in secured and unsecured credit for operating and regular business expenses, and a separate $1.4 billion in unsecured credit earmarked to refund travellers impacted by COVID-19.
