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 federal ethics commissioner investigated the trips and in 2017 ruled his acceptance of gifts breached conflict of interest rules because the Aga Khan was the founder of a charity that had received federal money.
The latest census data from 2021 shows that since 2016, the number of people aged 85 and older grew by 12 per cent — more than twice as high as the overall growth of the Canadian population at 5.2 per cent.
There are 866,340 single-detached homes in B.C., representing 42.4 per cent of the housing distribution and an increase of 1.7 per cent since the last census in 2016.
The federal agency says the cases are being investigated to determine if they are related to those in the United Kingdom and the United States. A spokesperson did not share any further details, such as the number of cases, age of the children or their health condition.
The recent federal budget added to the Canada Infrastructure Bank's plate by requiring it to now spend public dollars on private sector-led projects like small modular reactors, clean fuel production, and carbon capture and storage.
The figures from 2021 show the country's 7.8 million single-detached homes made up about 53 per cent of Canada's housing supply, down from roughly 54 per cent during the 2016 census.
