Singh says he’s concerned Trudeau images show ‘pattern’ in mocking victims of racism
NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh say he’s concerned that newly surfaced images of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau wearing brownface show an “ongoing pattern of behaviour” of mocking those who have experienced racism, urging that the focus now turn to Canadians who have faced it.
“How do you look someone in the eye that has mocked the lived reality that I have lived, but more importantly, what a lot of Canadians have lived,” said Singh, who was in Hamilton, Ont., for a policy announcement.
“I’m also concerned that this is an ongoing pattern of behaviour that doesn’t just talk about his past,” he said, citing comments Trudeau made to a protester at a private Liberal fundraiser in March.
During the event, Trudeau thanked a protester who was later escorted out of the room for her “donation.” She had been advocating for Grassy Narrows First Nation, a community struggling with the effects of mercury poisoning linked to historical industrial dumping nearby. Trudeau was harshly criticized for lacking sensitivity and later apologized.
Singh on Thursday morning was addressing recently unearthed photographs and video of Trudeau wearing brownface, a racist practice that invokes a painful history and perpetuates humiliating stereotypes of people of colour.
On Wednesday night, Time magazine published a photograph of Trudeau, then a 29-year-old, in costume and darkened makeup at a 2001 party of staff and parents at the Vancouver private school where he was teaching at the time.
Trudeau quickly offered an apology, but hours later, another image from the 2001 event was unearthed, as well as a photograph of Trudeau in blackface performing in a high school talent show. Global News published on Thursday morning a video of third incident showing him in blackface some time in the 1990s.
Singh, Canada’s first-ever racialized federal party leader, said Thursday morning that “Canadians are going to have a lot of questions about his sincerity, a lot of questions about who is the real Justin Trudeau.”
He said the focus now “has to be on what this means to so many people in Canada, and what what they’re living with and what they’re faced with.”
The New Democrat also said the Trudeau incidents can “inflame” racial tensions and “give more oxygen to those who believe in discriminating people based on the way they look.”
“That’s why it’s deeply concerning. The impact that this has on Canada and on the lives of Canadians can’t be underestimated,” he said.
Singh said it was ultimately up to Canadians to judge Trudeau’s apology and whether he is a racist.
Trudeau, who cancelled his original itinerary for Thursday, is expected to address the media in Winnipeg at 1.15 p.m. local time.
News of the images is dominating headlines from around the world on Thursday morning.