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.
Procurement Minister Anita Anand says after talking to provinces, it was determined these COVID-19 doses to be excess supply, as demand for this vaccine had been met.
Research projects must now undergo a risk assessment as part of any grant application to the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) that involves private-sector partners, Innovation Minister François-Philippe Champagne said Monday.
After an extensive joint investigation with several other police agencies throughout Metro Vancouver, Vancouver Police today announced convictions against numerous gang members.
Associate Chief Justice Heather Holmes says the application by Meng's lawyers to use the documents obtained from HSBC through a Hong Kong court is denied, with her reasons to follow later.
B.C. is reporting 45 new cases of COVID-19, for a total of 148,031 cases in the province. This includes a data correction from yesterday, as well as reconciliation of records for cases followed up by the Federal Quarantine Program between March and April 2021.
A Punjabi trucker has been arrested in Canada for smuggling about 112.5 kg of cocaine into the country from the US. Pardeep Singh, 24, who is a resident of LaSalle in Quebec, was caught when his truck entered Fort Erie in Canada from the US.
