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Conservative Leader Backs Convention Motion To End ‘Birth Tourism’ In Canada

David Krayden Ottawa Bureau Chief
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Conservative Oppositon Leader Andrew Scheer is supporting a motion from last weekend’s party policy convention to end “birth tourism.” As Global News reports, Conservative members voted on Saturday to ban automatic citizenship for babies born in Canada if their parents do not have citizenship.

The move is an attempt to stop mothers from coming to Canada for the express purpose of giving birth and ensuring the child has Canadian citizenship.

“Ending birth tourism will be among the objectives of our policy,” Scheer wrote in a statement Sunday. “Conservatives recognize there are many Canadians who have been born in Canada by parents who have come here to stay and have contributed greatly to our country. I will not end the core policy that facilitates this. Unlike Justin Trudeau, I will safeguard it against abuse.”

Vancouver Member of Parliament (MP) Alice Wong was one of the party members in favor of the policy. Wong called the phenomenon “passport babies” and told the convention Saturday that Canada would be better off to “fight for [its] own babies.”
Calgary MP Deepak Obhrai was against the policy. He said the matter should be a simple one because it is a “fundamental question of equality.” He argued at the conventin that a person “who is born in Canada, by law, is entitled to be a Canadian.”

(RELATED: Conservative Leader Says He Will Not Oppose Canada’s Abortion On Demand Policy)

Others spoke against the motion, such as Alberta MP Deepak Obhrai, who said the issue is a “fundamental question of equality.”

Although policy resolutions at the party’s convention do not automatically become Conservative policy, Scheer’s statement is a clear indication that he intends to make it so.

New Democratic Party leader Jagmeet Singh tweeted that the policy is one that “even [President Donald] Trump has resisted. The NDP unequivocally condemns the division & hate being peddled by @AndrewScheer & the CPC.”

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