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.
Environment Canada is investigating the possibility that a tornado swept through the Fort St. John area in northern B.C. Meteorologist Doug Lundquist says the powerful system started above the wildfires in the Interior last week, on the same day much of the town of Lytton was destroyed by a fire.
This morning, Monday, July 5, 2021, at 5:09 am, Abbotsford Police Patrol officers responded to a report of a body found in the Clinton Ave access parking lot of Clearbrook Park.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is back on the road, announcing hundreds of millions of dollars in climate spending from his Liberal government Monday in what would not have looked out of place on the campaign trail.
The federal government spent $20 million on a smartphone application designed to alert users to possible COVID-19 exposures, and new data obtained by The Canadian Press shows the results didn't live up to expectations.
The real estate market in Metro Vancouver eased in June from its record-setting pace in March and April. The Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver says the number of home sold in the region totalled 3,762 last month, up 54 per cent from the 2,443 sales recorded a year earlier, but down 11.9 per cent from the 4,268 sold in May 2021.
