Zi-Ann Lum/HuffPost Canada Left to right: Conservative Chinese-language ad accuses Liberals of having a plan to legalize hard drugs; Liberal ad calls Conservative ad "fake"; Conservative ad using cover page of a terminated federal bill as proof Liberals want to legalize hard drugs.

TORONTO — Liberals have launched a new Chinese-language ad in the last week of the election campaign to challenge Conservative accusations that leader Justin Trudeau has a plan to legalize hard drugs. The ads, authorized by the Liberal Party, show screengrabs of a Globe and Mail story and a Vancouver Sun column about the misleading online Chinese-language campaign. Images of the ads the Conservatives have been using are stamped with a Chinese character meaning “fake.” Conservatives are standing by their ad campaign. “If Justin Trudeau tells us precisely when he is going to legalize dangerous drugs we will amend our advertisements to reflect this new information,” spokesperson Simon Jefferies told HuffPost Canada on Thursday. Jefferies referred to a Global News interview last month of Trudeau stating that Liberals are “not looking at full decriminalization at all right now.”

Zi-Ann Lum/HuffPost Canada A Chinese-language Liberal ad calls Conservative attacks claiming Justin Trudeau wants to legalize hard drugs "fake." The ads are shown on a smart display installed at a Toronto grocery store on Oct. 16 2019.

Conservatives have been pressing Liberals with the claim for weeks, stoking anti-drug fear-mongering. The party placed their own Chinese-language ads in the same network of digital smart screens installed at Asian businesses in the Toronto area — a battleground region rich with federal seats. They are syndicated by Scarborough, Ont.-based Capital Green Tech & Trade Corp., in partnership with Taoping Inc., a Shenzhen advertising company that supplies display terminals. “Justin Trudeau has a plan to legalize hard drugs!” the Conservative ad reads.

Zi-Ann Lum/HuffPost Canada A Chinese-language Conservative ad plays on a screen at a Scarborough, Ont. grocery store on Oct. 17, 2019. It falsely claims Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau has a plan to legalize hard drugs.

Zi-Ann Lum/HuffPost Canada Chinese-language Conservative Party ad in a Scarborough, Ont. grocery store on Oct. 17, 2019.

Another slide shows an image of Bill C-460, tabled in the dying days of the last parliament by a Liberal MP. The bill was intended to reduce barriers to opioid addiction treatment. Chinese text superimposed over the image claims “It’s true!” that Liberals are planning to legalize hard drugs. At the bottom of the Chinese-language ad, the characters in red state that Liberals passed it at first reading. Bills cannot be passed at first reading. There are no votes at this introductory stage. The bill did not make it through the federal legislative process before the House rose for the summer. It was left as unfinished business on the order paper, then died last month when the election was called, which wiped the parliamentary slate clean. The ads do not make any mention to the opioid crisis. Harm reduction advocates have argued that decriminalizing small quantities of illicit drugs is one way to mitigate the crisis, creating conditions to spur addicts to seek help without the fear of facing criminal charges for possession. More than 12,800 people have lost their lives since January 2016 from apparent opioid-related deaths. Watch: Trudeau says he’s not looking at legalizing heroin or cocaine. Story continues below video.

Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer has repeatedly said he doesn’t consider decriminalizing illicit drugs an effective way to address the opioid crisis. “Recovery programs get people off of addictions so they’re not exposing themselves to dangerous drugs that could possibly be laced with things like fentanyl,” Scheer told reporters at a campaign stop in Brampton, Ont. “That’s where we’re going to put our investments. Not decriminalizing hard drugs.” Scheer pledged earlier this year to “hold China accountable” to stem the flow of fentanyl, the illicit synthetic opioid 50 to 100 times stronger than morphine that is fuelling the opioid crisis. A Conservative government will add checks on imports from China to crack down on opioids and fentanyl coming into the country, he said.

Carlos Osorio / Reuters Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer campaigns in Brampton, Ont. on Oct. 17, 2019.

The government has repeatedly said it would not pursue decriminalization of illicit drugs since Liberal grassroots members passed a policy last year, calling the move a way to address the opioid epidemic as a public health issue. Health Minister Ginette Petitpas Taylor told HuffPost in May that efforts have been on addressing unsafe drug supply, not decriminalization. Tit-for-tat attack ads A day after Justin Trudeau bemoaned the current election as one of the “dirtiest” and “nastiest” campaigns, the leader was asked if his party’s message accusing Conservatives of wanting to keep assault weapons on the street counts as disinformation.

He told reporters in Trois-Rivières, Que., on Thursday that Liberals “have made the commitment to ban military-style assault weapons across this country. Andrew Scheer has clearly said he will not.”

“Assault weapon” is a popular term used to describe semiautomatic and automatic firearms, but has no legal definition in the federal Firearms Act. HuffPost Canada reported earlier this month that Liberals printed campaign literature claiming that Conservatives want to keep assault weapons on the street.

Zi-Ann Lum/HuffPost Canada Chinese-language Liberal ad claiming Conservatives want to keep assault weapons on streets plays in a Scarborough, Ont. grocery store on Oct. 17, 2019.

Facebook Ad Library Chinese-language Liberal party ad claiming Conservatives want to keep assault weapons on the street. The ads started running on Oct. 16, 2019 and have become inactive as of Oct. 17, 2019.