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WINNIPEG — A Conservative candidate in Winnipeg has compared the number of abortions in Canada to the death tolls of the Holocaust and the 9-11 attack in the United States.

Gordon Giesbrecht, who is running in Winnipeg-South, made the comments in a video posted online in 2009 when he was president of Horizon College and Seminary, a Christian academy in Saskatoon.

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In the video, Giesbrecht says the number of abortions in recent decades equals “a 9/11 every day” and surpasses the number of people killed in the Holocaust in the Second World War.

“That’s a very serious problem that confronts our youth in the world and in our churches,” he says in the video.

“Unfortunately, this issue is seldom, if ever, addressed in our churches today.”

He then quotes a Bible passage that refers to God knowing someone before they were shaped in the womb.

Giesbrecht was not available for comment Tuesday evening. His campaign manager, Olivia Baldwin-Valainis, said Giesbrecht was out door-knocking and would not be made available. Baldwin-Valainis said the Conservative party position has been, and remains, that the abortion issue will not be reopened.