WORLD
The story behind a photo
that roiled an election
By Anna Purna Kambhampaty
On sept. 18, TIME publIshed a prevIOusly unrepOrted
yearbook photo that showed Justin Trudeau wearing
brownface at a 2001 “Arabian Nights”–themed party for the
private school where he taught.
Less than two hours later, the Canadian Prime Minister,
who is in the middle of a close re-election campaign, ad-
dressed TV cameras and apologized. “I shouldn’t have done
that. I should have known better but I didn’t, and I’m really
sorry,” Trudeau said.
He also acknowledged wearing blackface in high school
to sing “Day-O,” a Jamaican folk song famously performed
by singer and civil rights activist Harry Belafonte. The next
morning, a third instance emerged: a grainy video obtained
by Global News showed Trudeau in blackface, raising his
hands in the air while sticking out his tongue. Later that
day, Trudeau apologized again and said he couldn’t rule out
even more photos emerging. He acknowledged that wearing
blackface was racist at the time, “and I didn’t see that from
the layers of privilege that I have.”
The revelaTion From TIME drew immediate criticism
from his political opponents, with Conservative Party
leader Andrew Scheer calling it an act of “open mockery
and racism,” implying that Trudeau was “not fit to govern
this country.” Jagmeet Singh, the leader of Canada’s
New Democratic Party, which is politically to the left of
Trudeau’s Liberal Party, said, “Anytime we hear examples
of brownface or blackfacing, it’s really making a mockery of
someone for what they live and what their lived experiences
are. I think he needs to answer for it.”
Cheryl Thompson, a professor who studies the history
of blackface at Ryerson University in Toronto, says
Trudeau’s blackface controversy could be “one of the
first times we’ve had an honest conversation about race
in Canada.” Trudeau, who is often described as the “first
Prime Minister of the Insta gram age,” now stands accused
of hypocrisy because of his past record of championing
diversity. Along with appointing a Cabinet with at least
seven of 35 members from a racial minority, Trudeau’s
government has welcomed more than 25,000 refugees
from Syria and put Canadian civil rights activist Viola
Desmond on the $10 bill.
Thompson says the shock these images caused comes
from a “cognitive dissonance that’s hard for people to grap-
ple with.” She adds, “We have this illusion that racism does
not exist in Canada, but that’s not the case. We have been
reluctant to accept our own history.”
Canada may not have the same history of slavery and
Jim Crow racism as the U.S., but that doesn’t make black-
or brownface any less racist there, says Philip S.S. Howard,
a professor and black-studies scholar at McGill University
in Montreal.
Blackface was used in performances to dehumanize peo-
ple of color in Canada, just as it was in the U.S., according
to Howard. It was popular at community events in Canada
until the 1970s, and the national anthem, “O Canada,” was
composed by Calixa Lavallée, who spent years performing in
blackface for minstrel shows.
The photo shows then 29-year-old Trudeau, the son of
a former Prime Minister, wearing a turban and robes with
his face, neck and hands completely darkened, smiling
alongside other faculty members. It was published in a
yearbook for West Point Grey Academy. The photo was
obtained by TIME from Michael Adamson, a Vancouver
businessman who had been part of the West Point Grey
Academy community.
The controversy comes at an especially delicate time for
Trudeau, with Canadians voting on Oct. 21. He was already
weathering a scandal over whether he had pressured his
then Justice Minister to drop corruption charges against a
large Canadian engineering firm—and he had been polling
neck and neck with his Conservative Party rival.
Polls immediately after the photo was published showed
Trudeau’s Liberal Party hadn’t lost any significant support.
A different poll by EKOS Research, however, found nearly a
quarter of Canadians said that the blackface incidents will
impact how they vote. themed party at the private school where he taught