A Conservative candidate in the Lower Mainland is again under fire.
Two videos surfaced on Friday featuring Burnaby North–Seymour hopeful Heather Leung talking about LGBTQ 2+ rights.
First, in an undated video found by the Vancouver Sun, Leung discusses the value of conversion therapy – a form of pseudoscience that tries to change an individual’s sexual orientation through therapy. She also says gay people live a “perverted lifestyle.”
A second video from 2011, shot by the Burnaby Now newspaper, shows her speaking out against a policy passed by the local school board to curb bullying of gay students.
“These homosexual people, they cannot reproduce the next generation… They recruit more people and more people into their camp,” she says in the video.
Svend Robinson, who is the NDP candidate in the riding and Canada’s first openly gay MP – called on Conservative leader Andrew Scheer to kick her out of the party.
I must have been injected with that special serum that made me gay...but Leung will save me from my perverted homosexual lifestyle by conversion therapy....No, #BurnabyNorthSeymour doesn't support this hatred that tells LGBT youth they are evil. Shame!https://t.co/Es4MnH266u
— Svend Robinson (@Svend4MP) October 3, 2019
“How can Scheer allow Heather Leung to run as a candidate under the Conservative banner when her words show her hatred for LGBTQ2S Canadians?” he asked in a news release Friday.
Black Press Media has reached out to Leung for comment.
Ask about her comments while campaigning in Toronto, Scheer said: “Our party stands for inclusiveness and the rights of all Canadians, including LGBT Canadians, and will always do.” He added he had not seen the video.
Leung has been been called out before during this campaign.
Comedian and political satirist Rick Mercer drew attention to a post on her campaign Facebook page last month, showing him and one of his quotes that falsely made him appear to endorse the Tories. A party official said at the time the person who posted it was not involved on the local campaign.
Weeks earlier, another photo was posted to the same Facebook page showing Liberal Party Leader Justin Trudeau on the edge of a cliff, with his campaign slogan, “CHOOSE FORWARD.”
- with a file from The Canadian Press
READ MORE: Rick Mercer calls out Conservative candidate in B.C. for fake meme
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