Justin Trudeau’s brownface scandal deepens as more damaging images emerge ahead of election
- Canadian media publish 1990s video and photo of the prime minister performing Jamaican song in blackface
- Time to ‘work together’ on racism, Trudeau says as he apologises in conference call to all 338 Liberal candidates
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s brownface photo scandal deepened on Thursday as new damaging images emerged, and the Liberal leader reached out to his candidates in next month’s federal election to apologise.
With less than five weeks to go before a national vote, Time magazine published a picture of Trudeau on Wednesday in brownface and wearing a turban during a 2001 “Arabian Nights” party when he was a 29-year-old teacher at a private school in Vancouver.
The same day, Trudeau apologised to Canadians for the incident and also admitted to performing Day O, a traditional Jamaican song made famous by Harry Belafonte, in blackface during a high school talent show years earlier. The Canadian Broadcasting Corp then published a picture from the performance that a Liberal spokeswoman confirmed as authentic.
On Thursday, Global News put out a video showing Trudeau again in dark make-up, ripped jeans and a T-shirt, making faces and sticking his tongue out. It was not immediately clear exactly when that video was from.
“We can confirm that it is him and it’s from the early 1990s,” a Liberal official said.