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.
The study published Wednesday in the journal Science Advances found just five other heat waves since the 1960s were more extreme, based on how far they surpassed average summertime heat over the previous 10 years.
Kevin Falcon was elected Liberal leader earlier this year and won a byelection in the Vancouver-Quilchena riding over the weekend. Falcon says he'll pressure the NDP for answers on its failures to address crime in urban centres, doctor shortages, increasing health-care wait times and rising home, fuel and food costs.
British Columbia's health minister says the province has almost caught up with the backlog of surgeries from the pandemic and weather events while it sets new targets to whittle down the existing waiting lists. Adrian Dix says 400 nurses and 100 technicians had received training under the surgical renewal program to bolster staffing.
Police say in a news release that Neil Wong, also known as Nein-Nein Wong, offered private piano lessons in his home and online, but the total number of his students is not known.
NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh says the government should launch pharmacare with free access to birth control, including the morning-after pill. Reproductive health has been in the spotlight since a leaked U.S. Supreme Court draft opinion revealed national abortion rights could be rescinded in that country.
The department said the Canadian Forces National Investigation Service, the local military police detachment and police in Kingston, Ont., where the college is located, are supporting an ongoing coroner's investigation into the incident.
