Justin Trudeau pledges assault rifle ban, pivoting campaign amid brownface scandal
- Prime minister fighting to get re-election push back on track less than five weeks before Canadians go to polls
- US president Trump ‘surprised’ after bombshell images of Canadian PM in dark make-up emerge
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, embroiled in a brownface picture scandal, pledged on Friday to ban military-style assault rifles in the country’s most ethnically diverse city in a bid to get his campaign back on issue.
Trudeau is campaigning in Toronto with less than five weeks to go before the October 21 national election and two days after bombshell images of him in brown and blackface emerged.
“Thoughts and prayers aren’t going to cut it,” Trudeau said in Toronto. “We know you do not need a military grade assault weapon, one designed to kill the largest number of people in the shortest amount of time, to take down a deer.”
This month, a 17-year-old was killed by gunfire and five other people were wounded in a community just outside Toronto, and two days later another person was killed in a shooting on a major motorway.
The Liberal Party leader vowed on Thursday to continue his push for re-election and asked for forgiveness. Several ministers turned up at the announcement to show their support, including Finance Minister Bill Morneau and Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland.
Trudeau said the new gun rules would include a buy-back programme for all legally purchased assault rifles, and a Liberal government would also work with other levels of government to give municipalities the ability to further restrict or ban handguns.
In August, Toronto Mayor John Tory said a citywide handgun ban would be enough to reduce gun violence in Canada’s biggest city. All federal parties are hoping to make political gains in and around Toronto this election.
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Before the damaging images emerged two days ago, polls showed Trudeau running head-to-head with his main rival, Conservative Party leader Andrew Scheer.
Trudeau’s campaign was upended when Time magazine on Wednesday published an image of the prime minister, who is known to be a strong advocate for multiculturalism, wearing a turban with his face darkened at a 2001 “Arabian Nights” party when he was a 29-year-old teacher at a Vancouver private school.
Other images have since emerged, and Trudeau said on Thursday he was “wary” of ruling out the existence of even more because he could not remember those that had already come to light.
US President Donald Trump said on Friday he was surprised at the emergence of the images.
“I am surprised,” Trump told reporters. “I was more surprised when I saw the number of times.”
“I’ve always had a good relationship with Justin. I just don’t know what to tell you,” Trump said, a day after the Canadian leader was forced to again publicly apologise for the embarrassing images.
Additional reporting by Agence-France Presse
