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OTTAWA – A Liberal MP Friday said the Quebec mosque murders were a “direct result” of the kinds of policies “championed” in recent elections by the federal Conservative party and the provincial Parti Quebecois.

Chandra Arya’s accusation, made Friday in the House of Commons, was the latest attempt by federal Liberals to blame “elements” in the Conservative Party for a sharp rise in anti-Muslim sentiment in Canada.

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“The recent killings of Muslims praying in the mosque in Quebec City is not an accident,” Arya said. “This is the direct result of dog-whistle politics — the politics of fear and division.”

Arya, who represents the Ottawa-area riding of Nepean, did not mention any politician or political party by name in his House of Commons statement but he blamed, “the elements who championed charter values, niqab ban, barbaric cultural practices tipline — all targeted at Canadian Muslims.”

In in an interview outside the House of Commons, Arya said he was referring to policies that were part of both the Parti Quebecois in Quebec’s last provincial election and the federal Conservatives in the 2015 federal election.

So far, investigators have not speculated on the motivations or political interests of the individual accused of killing six worshippers at the mosque Ste-Foy, Alexandre Bissonnette.