OTTAWA — Conservative leadership candidate Kellie Leitch is asking whether the federal government should screen potential immigrants and refugees for anti-Canadian values. The question comes in a survey on a number of issues which was emailed to people who signed up for news from her campaign. During the 2015 federal election campaign, Leitch helped promote a controversial promise to open a tip line for so-called barbaric cultural practices, to help the RCMP enforce a law aimed at cracking down on forced marriages and keeping polygamists out of Canada. In a TV interview earlier this year, she expressed regret for that, saying her goal of protecting women and girls got overtaken by a broader conversation about the role that ethnic and cultural identity politics was playing in the Conservative campaign. U.S. Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump has called for would-be immigrants to undergo what he called extreme vetting to determine their stance on things like religious freedom, gender equality and LGBTQ rights.

Source: National Post September 01, 2016 19:41 UTC