By Canadian Press

Trudeau apologizes again as blackface photos upend Liberal campaign

Sep 21, 2019 | 10:45 AM

WINNIPEG — Rather than starting his day with another promise, Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau began Day 9 of the federal election having difficult conversations with his candidates, local community leaders and with his three children about the multiple times he has dressed in blackface and brownface.

After a late-night apology on his campaign plane on Wednesday night — an event that made headlines around the world — Trudeau and his team retreated to a hotel in Winnipeg to regroup.

Outrage hit Trudeau’s re-election campaign late Wednesday following the release of a 2001 photo of him dressed as Aladdin in a huge costume turban, his face and hands coloured with makeup.

Trudeau apologized for the decision and acknowledged making himself up to look dark-skinned was racist. He also admitted to wearing blackface for a performance when he was in high school, singing Harry Belafonte’s “Banana Boat Song (Day O).”

No itinerary was issued for Thursday’s campaign activities on Wednesday night, as has been standard at the end of each day and staffers looked weary and avoided questions about what the plans were for the following day as they headed for their rooms.

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The plans for the day were out the window.

On Thursday morning, bleary-eyed journalists awoke to revelations that Global News had obtained a video of a third instance of Trudeau dressing in blackface from the early 1990s.

Still no word came from the Liberal team about what the plans for the day in Winnipeg would be.

The few party staffers who stayed in the same hotel as the journalists travelling with the campaign tour huddled quietly in the hotel lobby restaurant, exchanging whispers. When asked, they would plaster on the best smile they could muster and say things were fine.

Finally, word was issued that Trudeau would hold a media availability in the early afternoon and later fly to Saskatoon for a scheduled campaign rally there.

Over the last nine days of the campaign, each day has begun early and has been packed with events. The mornings have almost always included a platform policy announcement with an opportunity for journalists to ask questions — except the two weekend days last week that were photo-op events only.

On Thursday, hours went by and Trudeau and his campaign brain trust remained out of public view.

It was later revealed the Liberal leader had spent the morning on the phone, talking to community leaders and some individual visible minority MPs, as well as a conference call with Liberal candidates to discuss the damning photos.  Aides said he spent more time listening than talking.

Before his press conference, Trudeau stopped into two small shops in downtown Winnipeg. Liberal staffers quietly ushered several young persons of colour into one of the shops just before Trudeau — with cameras and videographers in tow — arrived to shake hands and pose for photos. He was smiling, but his demeanour was muted compared to his usual upbeat mainstreeting manner.

A large crowd had gathered in a green square where, right in the middle, stood a single microphone. No podium. No TelePrompTer. No campaign signage.

When his motorcade arrived, Trudeau emerged and walked the gauntlet toward the microphone. Liberal candidates lined up behind him.

He was once again apologetic, and started by addressing racialized Canadians who face discrimination on a daily basis — many of whom have been publishing their deep sense of disappointment and hurt over seeing racist photos and a video of their prime minister.

He told reporters when he first sought public office more than a decade ago he never told anyone that he had worn black- and brownface years earlier because he was too embarrassed 

“What I did hurt them, hurt people who shouldn’t have to face intolerance and discrimination because of their identity,” he said. “This is something that I deeply, deeply regret.”

He told reporters he only recalled two instances where he wore blackface. The video released Thursday was a third.

When asked if it’s possible there are other instances, Trudeau said he was “wary of being definitive about this” because he didn’t remember the latest images.

“I think the question is: ‘How can you not remember that?'” Trudeau said.

“The fact is I didn’t understand how hurtful this is to people who live with discrimination every single day. I have always acknowledged that I come from a place of privilege — but I now need to acknowledge that that comes with a massive blind spot.”

A number of people in the crowd, which encircled Trudeau, applauded this response. Otherwise they remained silent, many with phones and cameras held up, recording his extended question-and-answer session with reporters.

When asked about what his father — the late Pierre Trudeau who also once served as Canada’s prime minister — would have thought of his behaviour, the Liberal leader said he didn’t think his father would have been pleased.

His eyes welled with tears as he then recalled his “difficult conversations” that morning with his children and the similar conversations this controversy has now sparked among families across Canada.

“When I think of the conversations I had with my kids this morning I also recognize there are far too many Canadians this morning who had to explain to their kids what those pictures were of their prime minister,” he said.

“I regret deeply parents that have had to have difficult conversations with their kids that were uncomfortable and hurtful because of my actions.”

After he finished, many in the crowd came over to shake his hand and thank him for his comments. A few people shouted from the sidelines, including a transgender youth concerned about Indigenous land rights.

He did not engage with them and eventually was whisked away in his motorcade.

He flew to Saskatoon in the afternoon. His plans changed again — what was supposed to be a campaign rally became a town hall with questions from members of a largely Liberal-friendly crowd.

Trudeau got only one question on the controversy from a man who sarcastically wondered if it was possible to round the number of times he’d donned blackface “to the nearest five.”

“What I did was inexcusable and wrong and hurt a lot of people who considered me to be an ally,” Trudeau said. “I am deeply, deeply sorry. There’s no way to sugar-coat it.”

But the next questioner, a man in a yellow vest, urged Trudeau not to apologize, saying “Let’s not go back digging up bones 15 years, what are we doing now and in the present?”

While Trudeau agreed on the need to focus on how to move the country forward on a host of issues, he said one of those issues is “making sure your leaders don’t hurt people who already face discrimination and marginalization too much in their daily lives.”

Other questioners, including several Indigenous leaders, were full of praise for Trudeau. A nun complimented him for being “so polite and humble.”

“If human beings always treated each other like that, we’d have a very happy, healthy society,” she said.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 19, 2019.

Teresa Wright, The Canadian Press