OTTAWA—Hours after his campaign was rocked by revelations that Justin Trudeau appeared in brownface during his time as a teacher, a new video appears to show yet another incident.
The video posted by Global News shows a brief clip of Trudeau in blackface, wearing a white t-shirt, sticking his tongue out.
Liberal party spokesperson Zita Astravas confirmed to the Star that it’s Trudeau in the video, which she said dates from the early 1990s.
Trudeau was already facing wide condemnation after Time magazine published a photo showing the prime minister, then a teacher, wearing brownface makeup and a turban at a 2001 private school party.
At a hastily called news conference onboard his campaign plane Wednesday night, Trudeau said he didn’t think it was racist at the time, but now acknowledges that it was.
“I regret it deeply,” Trudeau said. “It’s something I shouldn’t have done, many years ago, and I recognize that I shouldn’t have done it.”
He admitted that it wasn’t his first time he had dressed in brownface. “When I was in high school I dressed up at a talent show and sang ‘Day-O,’” Trudeau said, adding quickly, “and put makeup on.”
The incident has garnered international attention, with news coverage by the New York Times, the Washington Post, CNN, BBC and the Guardian newspaper in the U.K.
It’s not clear that an apology and an appeal for forgiveness will be enough for Trudeau and his campaign for re-election for a second term in what was already a tight race with the Conservatives.
A photo showing Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, at a 2001 costume party ? his hands and face blackened with makeup ? was published by Time Magazine Wednesday. They say it was published in the yearbook from the West Point Grey Academy, a private school in Vancouver, B.C., where Trudeau worked as a teacher before entering politics.
After saying he was “shocked” by Trudeau’s behaviour Wednesday night, Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer admitted Thursday that his campaign team had previously obtained a video of Trudeau in blackface and leaked it to Global News.
Scheer said Trudeau “failed to be honest” Wednesday night when he admitted to two instances of wearing brown or blackface costumes, when three distinct instances had come to light by Thursday morning.
“I think Canadians might have been able to accept Justin Trudeau’s apology if he hadn’t lied about it,” Scheer told reporters at a campaing stop in Saint-Hyacinthe, Quebec.
“But he was asked specifically if there were other instances, and he said there was only one other incident. And now we know there are at least three (total). An apology based on a lie is not a real apology.”
A high school yearbook photo from Montreal's College Jean-de-Brebeuf shows Justin Trudeau in blackface, wearing bellbottoms, and a loud print jacket.
Scheer was asked if he had ever dressed up in a costume that could offend someone’s ethnicity or religion, he replied simply: “No.”
The Liberal campaign was scrambling Thursday. Trudeau is in Winnipeg but the carefully choreographed campaign schedule was ditched with no immediate events scheduled for him.
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His political rivals spoke out against Trudeau’s actions and the political fallout could worsen as the true impact of the images sinks in among Canadians.
On Thursday night, NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh appeared visibly shaken as he spoke to reporters in Mississauga. The first leader of a major federal party who is not white, Singh has written in his memoir about fighting bullies who made racist comments about his brown skin and turban when he was growing up. His voice broke as he spoke about people of colour who may not have been able to fight for themselves like he did, and he said he hoped the sight of a Canadian prime minister in brownface wouldn’t shatter anyone’s sense of belonging in this country.
On Thursday, as news broke of the third instance of Trudeau in brown or blackface, Singh spoke to Newstalk 1010 radio about why such acts are racist.
A photo of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau wearing racist makeup from the April 2001 newsletter of West Point Grey Academy, the private school where he was a teacher at the time.
“There’s a long history of mockery and ridiculing people for the way they look, and the use of brownface or blackface has really clearly been a part of racism,” he said. “It belittles and mocks the existence that someone lives.”
Politically, Singh argued the contrast between Trudeau as Liberal leader — with his public embrace of diversity and social acceptance — and Trudeau “in private” brings up questions about his character and sincerity. He said it will even “be tough” to shake Trudeau’s hand at the next leaders’ debate of the campaign.
Later, during an event at a restaurant in Hamilton, Singh questioned whether Trudeau has changed in the years since he dressed in brown face as a teacher in Vancouver. He pointed to an incident in March, when demonstrators unfurled a banner during a Liberal fundraiser in Toronto in an attempt to bring the prime minister’s attention to the mercury poisoning in Grassy Narrows First Nation. Trudeau sarcastically dismissed them as they were escorted out of the room, calling out: “Thank you very much for your donation tonight. I really appreciate it.” He later apologized.
“That speaks to someone who has not learned,” Singh said Thursday. “If someone is going to mock a community that’s suffering from mercury poisoning, I think Canadians are right to ask the question, is this someone that they want to continue to see as prime minister?”
Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer said that brownface is an act of “open mockery and racism.”
“It was just as racist in 2001 as it is in 2019. What Canadians saw this evening is someone with a complete lack of judgment and integrity and someone who’s not fit to govern this country,” said Scheer, who is expected to speak further on the topic Thursday morning.
Maxime Bernier, leader of the People’s Party of Canada, has been under fire himself for his views on immigration, accusing Trudeau of being a “hypocrite.”
“I’m not going to accuse @JustinTrudeau of being a racist. But he’s the master of identity politics and the Libs just spent months accusing everyone of being white supremacists.
He definitely is the biggest hypocrite in the country,” Bernier said on Twitter.
Celina Caesar-Chavannes, a Black MP who resigned from the Liberal caucus alleging Trudeau treated her disrespectfully, posted on Twitter that the photo of the Liberal leader in brownface is inexcusable.
“The privilege continues. There is no excuse for this. Apology is a first step. You should be aware of the history of #blackface and racism in this country and others. Apparently #diversityisyourstrength? Deeply disappointed,” she wrote.
The brownface incident happened at an “Arabian Nights” themed party hosted by West Point Grey Academy in Vancouver, where Trudeau, then 29, was a teacher.
Bruce Campion-Smith
Bruce Campion-Smith is an Ottawa-based reporter covering national politics. Follow him on Twitter: @yowflierAlex Ballingall is an Ottawa-based reporter covering national politics. Follow him on Twitter: @aballingaTonda MacCharles is an Ottawa-based reporter covering federal politics. Follow her on Twitter: @tondamacc
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Andrew Scheer, Justin Trudeau, Jagmeet Singh
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