BY SOPHIE SOLOWAY ’23
After a 2001 picture of Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in brownface makeup was released last week, two other similarly controversial pictures have also caught widespread media attention. With just under a month until the Canadian election in which Trudeau is seeking reelection, this scandal demonstrates the country’s often hidden politics and tensions.
Each of the pictures depict Trudeau in blackface makeup and each is from a separate occasion. After the photos surfaced, Prime Minister Trudeau apologized, saying, “This is something I shouldn’t have done many years ago. I take responsibility for my decision to do that. I didn’t think it was racist at the time. I now realize it was racist.”
During his six years as prime minister, Trudeau lost the trust of a large portion of his base with his shaky environmental decisions, policies that override indigenous rights and — most recently — corruption allegations.
As The Guardian wrote after the photos’ publications, “Trudeau has defended arms sales to Saudi Arabia, one of the world’s worst human rights violators … [and] approved an oil pipeline expansion opposed by many environmental and Indigenous groups … He has avoided questions about whether a Liberal government would comply with a human rights tribunal ruling ordering compensation for First Nations children.”
Although Trudeau is widely known for liberal ideals and progressive appearances, these pictures are not the first of the prime minister’s actions that hint otherwise.
“I have found that many white liberals and progressives truly believe that they are allies to communities of color and believe their actions are in adoration of a culture rather than appropriation or racism,” Zara Malik ’21, a student from Canada, said. “Rather than providing the opportunity for marginalized communities to speak for themselves, they speak on behalf of them. Trudeau is well-known in Canada to attend a lot of cultural events and partake in festivities and even extremely traditional religious experiences.”
Trudeau has also been accused of pressuring his former Attorney General, Jody Wilson-Raybould, to form an alliance with SNC-Lavalin, an engineering firm currently facing corruption charges. After resigning from her position, Wilson-Raybould shared that she faced enormous criticism after refusing to comply with this alleged corruption. The company is based in Montreal, a swing portion of Canada widely viewed as a critical base for the Liberal party. Many analysts believe that this might have offered some incentive for corruption.
This scandal was — until this week’s photo leak — the prime minister’s most controversial career hiccup yet. However, the corruption scandal’s impact on Trudeau’s polling was minimal.
According to the BBC, “In February and March, it led to the resignation of two high-profile cabinet ministers, his top personal aide and the head of the federal bureaucracy — and it cast a shadow over his leadership. But as the matter died down over the ensuing months, his polling numbers seemed to recover.”
This raises questions about how Trudeau will recover from the current scandal. As Malik shared, there are worries about how receptive Canada will be to these most recent criticisms of the prime minister.
“Canadians hide under this guise that they live in an unproblematic country where everyone is incredibly nice and loves one another,” Malik said. “There have been way too many times that my father has been told to ‘go back to his country’ and my brother has been followed around a store and accused of stealing. Racism is actually a huge issue in Canada and historically has been. As a Canadian myself, I feel it is important to point out that being polite does not automatically mean you are a good person.”
These worries are increasingly critical as the upcoming election approaches. While many criticize Trudeau and the Liberal Party for this scandal, worries about alternative leadership further complicate the issue.
Andrew Scheer, Trudeau’s conservative opponent, has rooted his campaign and party in racist and homophobic stances. Many Canadians are looking to the New Democratic Party’s Jagmeet Singh as an alternative, there is a clear fear that Trudeau’s dismissal would guarantee Scheer as the nation’s next Prime Minister.
“Many Canadians say that Canada isn’t ready for a Prime Minister with a turban [Jagmeet Singh], yet say that they aren’t racist,” Malik said. “News flash: you are racist, and just because you have a brown friend and identify as a liberal, it doesn’t mean that you are automatically exempt from being criticized for racism.”