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.
Amita Kuttner said the plan to get to net-zero is not enough to meet Canada's emissions reduction targets and the Greens wanted the budget to centre on climate change in every policy area.
Statistics Canada also says the unemployment rate would have been 7.2 per cent had it included in calculations people who wanted a job but did not look for one, falling to pre-pandemic levels for the first time.
Police said the 34-year-old Whistler man was pronounced dead at the scene and an investigation involving Whistler Blackcomb, the RCMP and the B.C. Coroners Service is underway.
People with two doses of a vaccine should no longer be considered "fully vaccinated" when that leaves others vulnerable to reinfection with COVID-19, as seen in jurisdictions like England, she said.
The promised new aid is contained in the Liberal government’s latest federal budget plan, which paints a gloomy picture for Canada’s economy should the war in Ukraine drag on, including even higher fuel prices and supply-chain problems.
Freeland has committed to doubling the number of homes built each year over the next decade to about 400,000 to help meet the 3.5 million homes the government estimates are needed by 2031, but the plans rely heavily on co-operation with other levels of government and the private sector.
