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.
Recent showers were a welcome relief to firefighters, but the rain wasn't enough to make long-lasting impacts on wildfires that continue to burn in British Columbia, a Wildfires BC operations director said Tuesday.
81.4% (3,773,442) of eligible people 12 and older in B.C. have received their first dose of COVID-19 vaccine and 67.3% (3,121,311) received their second dose.
He will be the in the host chair of the Jas Johal show from 3-6pm weekday afternoons. He is replacing former afternoon host Lynda Steele who resigned in June.
In a letter to Trudeau, Mario Dion says he's satisfied that the prime minister was not involved in the Liberal Research Bureau's decision to enter into a contract with Data Sciences Inc., a company owned by Tom Pitfield.
He was convicted of facilitating, for profit, the entry of a foreign national across the Canada/U.S. border in July 2017. It's the man's second conviction for human smuggling.
During the visit High Commissioner Bisaria met and interacted with a cross-section of people from the Greater Vancouver area, including, political leaders, Canadian business leaders, Indo-Canadian business leaders, heads of educational institutions and diaspora members.
