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.
Azam Azami, a flight instructor based in Chilliwack, B.C., says he flagged an online ad posted by Abhi Handa in a report to Transport Canada in December, more than four months before the same plane in the ad went down.
Dr. Madhukar Pai, a Canada Research Chair in epidemiology and global health at McGill University, told the House of Commons foreign affairs committee today he doesn't think rich countries like Canada have learned a thing from the first two years of the pandemic.
Const. Richard Johns says 28-year-old Rykel Frank and 29-year-old Mitchell Frank will go before a judge this week following their arrest on Friday. 6 year-old Dontay Lucas was found dead in a home in Port Alberni in March 2018.
The new Surrey Langley Skytrain public engagement begins Monday, May 9, 2022, and runs until June 9. Open houses for members of the public are scheduled for May 25 in Surrey and for May 31 in Langley. Surrey Langley SkyTrain is currently scheduled for completion in late 2028, two years earlier than first estimated.
U.S. border officials also seem to be seeing more people trying to cross in the opposite direction. 6 Indian nationals were rescued from a boat sinking on the St. Regis River in northern New York late last month, part of what court documents allege was a human smuggling operation.
While the investigation is still in the early stages, investigators confirm one person is in custody at this point. Although one person has been arrested, police continue to treat this investigation as active and ongoing to determine the circumstances, states Corporal Paige Kuz, Coquitlam RCMP Media Relations Officer.
