ON THE CAMPAIGN TRAIL

Conservative Leader Stephen Harper The Conservatives pledged to bring 10,000 additional refugees from Syria and Iraq to Canada if re- elected. The party would meet the new commitment over four years by targeting refugees from religious minority groups in the region who face persecution or the threat of extremist violence, Stephen Harper said Monday.

In 2013, the Conservative government promised to resettle 1,300 Syrian refugees by the end of 2014, but took until March this year to do it. In January, the government committed to a further 10,000 resettlements over the next three years but has not said how many have actually arrived. Harper said Monday that some 2,500 refugees from Syria are now in Canada. Harper also said the government is on track to resettle 23,000 Iraqis by the end of the year.

Harper’s announcement also included a multimillion- dollar pledge to fund groups that are trying to protect places of worship and religious artifacts targeted by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant ( ISIL). The Conservatives want to spend $ 9 million over three years on the project through a fund overseen by the Office of Religious Freedom that the Conservatives created in 2013. NDP Leader Tom Mulcair Protesters interrupted NDP Leader Tom Mulcair’s book launch over his position on the Energy East pipeline. Mulcair was reading passages from his autobiography, Strength of Conviction, when a couple of people unfurled banners and shouted, “Stop Energy East.”

Both Mulcair and Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau have said they don’t trust the current federal pipeline review process and would introduce stricter and more thorough analyses of proposed energy projects.

The disruption was brief and relatively amicable; at least one of the protesters reappeared during the booksigning portion of Mulcair’s event to pose for a photo with the NDP leader.

Meanwhile, an NDP candidate in Nova Scotia resigned over comments he allegedly made in a Facebook discussion about Israel emerged on a Conservative website. Morgan Wheeldon was the party’s candidate in the Annapolis Valley riding of Kings- Hants, but NDP campaign adviser Brad Lavigne said Monday that is no longer the case. Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau The Conservatives’ proposal to restrict Canadians from travelling to regions of the world controlled by terrorist groups is “electoral posturing,” Trudeau said.

The measure would see national security agencies tracking Canadians who travel to those areas and force those returning home to prove they were in the region for humanitarian reasons or as journalists covering the conflict.

“Canada is a country that respects people’s rights,” Trudeau said. “And any time a government chooses to limit those rights, it has to be able to answer very direct and complete questions about why it’s necessary, about how it will work, about what the clear plan is, and Mr. Harper has done none of that."

Trudeau and Mulcair have previously taken aim at Harper over civil liberty questions arising from the Conservatives’ controversial anti- terrorism law, Bill C- 51.