Is it Justin Trudeau’s turn to get “cancelled”?
The Canadian prime minister is facing calls to resign after three photos emerged of him wearing blackface. The pictures have sparked outrage and cries of hypocrisy, considering Trudeau’s public image as a sensitive, politically correct liberal.
The scandal comes at a very inconvenient time, as Trudeau faces re-election in a month. He has apologized for the images, even as he says he can’t recall exactly how many times he wore blackface.
Trudeau facing calls for resignation
In the Trump era, Trudeau has become popular with many liberals in Canada, the U.S., and beyond for his stridently progressive politics. But it turns out that the liberal leader, like a certain Democratic governor, has not always been so “woke.”
A crude photograph of Trudeau dressed up as Aladdin emerged in TIME magaine Wednesday, rocking Trudeau’s campaign just weeks before Canadians head to the polls. The photo shows Trudeau, then 29, dressed up in a turban and robes with black make-up on his face and skin. The 2001 image was taken at a gala for a private school, West Point Grey Academy, where Trudeau was teaching at the time. It appears in the school’s 2000-2001 yearbook. At a press conference Wednesday night, Trudeau sought to control the fallout.
“I shouldn’t have done that. I should have known better and I didn’t. I’m really sorry,” Trudeau responded. When asked if the picture was racist, he said, “Yes it was. I didn’t consider it racist at the time, but now we know better.”
Trudeau admitted to wearing blackface to sing the Jamaican song popularized by Harry Belafonte, “Day-O,” at a high school talent show, and Trudeau’s Liberal Party confirmed that a photo of a young man in blackface and an afro wig did indeed depict Trudeau. But the hits kept coming Thursday when a third image surfaced, this time taken from a video of Trudeau in blackface, making wild gestures. Trudeau is seen pulling faces, sticking his tongue out and lifting his hands in the air. The video, shot in the 1990s when he was a teenager, was obtained by Global News.
Liberals angry, cry hypocrisy
The biggest irony of all, of course, is that the very intolerant, PC-culture that Trudeau has helped foster is now coming for him. But will he face consequences?
Trudeau’s scandal echoes the firestorm that engulfed Virginia in January, when a series of images of governor Ralph Northam in blackface surfaced. Northam faced intense backlash, but months later, he’s still in office and doing just fine. Conservatives point to cases like Northam’s as evidence of a double standard in “cancel culture,” in which Republicans suffer ruinous penalties for causing offense, while liberals skate.
If the past is any indication, there’s a decent chance that Trudeau will survive the scandal. Still, there is no denying that liberals in Canada are outraged, and with elections on the horizon, Trudeau isn’t in a good place. The reactions have been stinging. An anchor for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation said the photos raise troubling questions about who Trudeau “really is.” Another pundit accused him of “galling hypocrisy,” and a writer in the The Post Millennial put it very succinctly: “Trudeau must resign because he would not allow himself to run.”
Indeed, Trudeau has won admiration from liberals — and mockery from the right — for his commitment to diversity, which has often ventured into the realm of parody. The irony of Trudeau’s scandal really can’t be understated, considering the emphasis his government has put on inclusion and political correctness. Trudeau has gone to great lengths to shun and denounce “bigots” while virtue signaling as “woke” and culturally sensitive, and his efforts have sometimes sparked backlash, as they did last year when he was lampooned over his family’s excessive dress while visiting India.
Politicians in Canada — the place where liberals all said they would flee to in order to escape the “racist” Donald Trump — are now condemning Trudeau. Canada’s New Democratic Party leader, Jagmeet Singh, said vaguely that Trudeau must “answer” for the photos, a bruising comment consideiring Trudeau’s efforts at outreach with Sikhs in Canada. The prime minister has refused to say if he will resign, but critics say that blackface was just as racist back in 2001 as it is now.
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