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.
On Thursday, May 5, 2022, at 2:24 a.m., Surrey RCMP received a report of a woman screaming and a fire alarm ringing in the 13500-block of Old Yale Road. Officers attended the area and located a woman who had been physically assaulted by a man in the staircase of an underground parking lot. The man had fled the area prior to police being called.
On Friday, April 1, 2022, just before 2 p.m., a 17-year-old girl boarded a route 335 bus headed to Newton Exchange in Surrey, made her way to the back of the bus and sat down. At an unknown point in the journey, a man boarded the same bus and began acting erratically while heading to the back of the bus, where he sat near the teen.
Gene Lahrkamp and Matthew Dupre have been accused in the Feb. 4 death of Jimi Sandhu in Phuket and police have said they fled to Canada following the incident.
U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai was in the national capital for a two-day visit, her first to Canada since President Joe Biden appointed her as his principal international trade emissary last March.
Attorney General David Eby said a small group of people is creating disorder and chaos, mostly in downtown cores, as businesses are trying to recover from the pandemic.
Investigators said they have not been able to determine the girl's cause of death, nor do they know just when she might have died, but they think her remains were placed in the dumpster sometime between last Thursday and Monday.
