Conservative ads aimed at Chinese, Punjabi voters claim Trudeau backs brothels, pot sales to kids

Stephen Harper is defending a Conservative ad campaign targeted at Chinese and Punjabi-speaking voters in Vancouver and Toronto thatclaims Justin Trudeau supports the sale of marijuana to children, the expansion of safeinjection sitesand the establishment of neighbourhood brothels.

A spokesperson for the Conservative leader said the party doesn't comment on its advertising strategies, but Harperdefended the campaign.

"Justin [Trudeau] refuses to acknowledge the damage that drugs do to families and communities," Harper, referring to the Liberal leader,saidin a written statement fromhis office.

"He wants to allow the sale of marijuana in corner stores and increase the number of heroin injection sites, dangerously misguided policies that would only make drugs more accessible to our children."

However,HarjitSajjan, theLiberal candidate for Vancouver South, disputed the messages in the ad, saying:"It's absolutely not true.

"I find it very disturbing that the Conservatives would actually turn to a tactic that goes beyond their fear and divisive tactics."

Campaign messages hit election battlegrounds

The campaign isrunning in Chinese and Punjabi-language newspapers, and radio stations inRichmond and South Vancouver, as well as Richmond Hill andMarkham in Ontario Toronto-area ridings with a large percentage of Chinese and Punjabi-speaking residents.

They also happen to beformer Liberal ridings that are now election battlegrounds for Conservative seats for the Oct. 19 vote.

Sajjan said it's clear the Conservatives are targeting the ridings with specific messaging for voters in theChinese and Punjabi communities.

"They shouldn't be targeting these ads to anybody," he said.

Insulting to the community, says Indo-Canadian journalist

Journalists for local South Asian and Chinese newspapers say the political ads are offensiveto the community.

"It is quite insulting to the community that the Conservative Party might think that people can be manipulated," said Rattan Mall, editor of the Indo-Canadian Voice newspaper and website.

Mall says the South Asian community caresfor a variety of subjects and targetingjust one issue won't go very far when it comes to getting votes.

But the political attack ads might have more of an impact on the Chinese community, says another local journalist.

"It's all a matter of strategy," said saidWallace Chan, host ofOpen Lineon Fairchild Radio."pretty sure Conservatives know that majority of Chinese are very concerned about marijuana and use this kind of message to scare people off to get them to continue to vote Conservative."

Checking the facts

Sajjansaid he supports Vancouver's supervisedinjection site, Insite, but that doesn't mean those types of services would start popping up in neighbourhoods.

Trudeauhas also spoken out in support of supervised injection sitesin the pastbackedMontreal Mayor DenisCoderre'scall to open four of them.

The Conservative Party, on the other hand, has repeatedly tried toshut downInsite, despite a Supreme Court ruling that closing it down would be a violation of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

Similarly, the party's tough-on-drugs approach has seen Harperspeak out against easing marijuana lawson several occasions, even though the majority of Canadians say they would support such measures.

The Liberals have stated that, if elected, they intend tolegalize marijuanafor people over the age of 18. The NDP similarly said itwould ease laws around the drug, althoughit would favour decriminalization rather thanlegalization.

As for the advertisement'sclaim about brothels, in a written statement, the Conservative Party pointed out that Trudeau voted against Bill C-36, ananti-prostitution bill that had to be amended in response to the Supreme Court of Canada ruling saying it was unconstitutional. The Liberals have made no proposals to legalizebrothels.