Trudeau 'Deeply, Deeply, Regrets' Brownface Photos

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau moved to contain a growing furor Thursday after a yearbook photo surfaced of him in brownface at a 2001 “Arabian Nights” costume party and two other similar incidents came to light.

With his bid for re-election just a month away, the 47-year-old Trudeau begged Canadians to forgive him.

“I’m not that person anymore,” Trudeau said, confessing that he hurt those who considered him an ally because of his support for minorities.

Time magazine published the photo on Wednesday, saying it was taken from the yearbook from the West Point Grey Academy, a private school in British Columbia where Trudeau worked as a teacher before going into politics. It shows the then-29-year-old Trudeau in a turban and robe with dark makeup on his hands, face and neck.

Conservative leader Andrew Scheer, who is mounting a serious challenge to the prime minister in the Oct. 21 vote, reacted by declaring Trudeau “not fit to govern this country.”

The day after the story broke, though, Trudeau gave no sign at all that he might resign, and no figures in his Liberal Party had called on him to step down. Many Liberals, some of them minorities, rallied around him, reflecting the reservoir of goodwill over his past support of diversity.

Canadian Defense Minister Harjit Sajjan, a Liberal who is Sikh, said that what Trudeau did was wrong but that the prime minister has a record of standing up for minorities. Trudeau named Sajjan Canada’s first Sikh defense chief in 2015.

Half of Trudeau’s Cabinet is made up of women, four are Sikhs, and his immigration minister is a Somali-born refugee.

Greg Fergus, a Liberal member of Parliament who is black, said there was a lot of confusion and hurt in the black community but noted that the prime minister apologized.

Fergus pointed out that it was Trudeau who put Viola Desmond, a black woman who refused to leave the whites-only section of a Canadian movie theater in 1944, on Canada’s $10 bill.

“I think the real measure of the man, and I think the thing we need to be talking about, is all the amazing things we have done for diversity,” Fergus said.

Mitzie Hunter, a Liberal who is running to lead the party in Ontario provincial politics and is black, tweeted: “I know it is not representative of the man he is. This is a teachable moment for all of us. I accept his apology and I hope Canadians do too.”

The photo of Trudeau was taken at the school’s annual dinner, which had an “Arabian Nights” theme that year, Trudeau said. He said he was dressed as a character from “Aladdin.”

The prime minister said it was not the first time he darkened his face: He once did it while performing a version of Harry Belafonte’s “Banana Boat Song (Day-O)” during a talent show.

Global News also reported a third instance, broadcasting a brief video of Trudeau in blackface while raising his hands in the air and sticking out his tongue. A Liberal Party spokeswoman said the footage was from the early 1990s. The Canadian TV network said it was not clear where the tape was made.

Scheer said his campaign team received the video from a concerned citizen and passed it on to the media.

On Thursday, Trudeau said he is wary of saying definitively how many times he has worn brown or blackface, but added: “I have to recognize that I was blind to the pain that I caused at those times.”

Trudeau is the latest in a string of politicians to get in trouble over racially offensive photos and actions from their younger days. Earlier this year, Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam overcame intense pressure to resign after a racist picture surfaced from his 1984 medical school yearbook.

Trudeau has championed multiculturalism and immigration, with Canada accepting more refugees than the U.S. under the Trump administration. His government has also strongly advocated free trade and has legalized marijuana.

But the son of the late Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau was already vulnerable following one of the biggest scandals in Canadian political history, which arose when Trudeau’s former attorney general said he pressured her to halt the prosecution of a company in Quebec. Trudeau has said he was standing up for jobs, but the scandal led to resignations and a drop in his ratings earlier this year.

His quick apology over the yearbook photo did not stem the criticism from political opponents.

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