Leitch attended ‘troubling’ meeting with group that called for ban on Muslims

By Stewart Bell
National Post | March 29, 2017

TORONTO — Video showing Conservative leadership candidate Kellie Leitch at a meeting with members of a group that protested outside a Toronto mosque last month was called “deeply troubling” on Wednesday.

Leitch can be seen shaking hands with a Rise Canada senior adviser and later responding to his questions at the gathering in Brampton, Ont., on Sunday. Videos of the event were posted on the Rise Canada website.

“Part of the Rise Canada organizing team spoke to Conservative candidate Kellie Leitch at an event in Brampton,” the group’s website said. The video was titled: “Rise Canada: Outlines our goals to Kellie Leitch.”

The Rise Canada Twitter account has called Islam “a barbaric ideology of hate that must be banned,” and proposed “a permanent ban on all Muslim immigrants PLUS mass deportation of existing Muslims.”

. . .

“It is deeply troubling to see elected officials participate in meetings where they do not challenge people advocating to deny the human rights of fellow Canadians based on irrational fear and hatred,” said Ihsaan Gardee, executive director of the National Council of Canadian Muslims.

The Rise Canada video also showed donations that had been collected at the event to fight construction of a mosque in Mississauga, Ont. Gardee said the money was for “an individual who peddles in anti-Muslim conspiracy theories.”

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