caretaker

PM Boris

carcajou

Blackface was not OK in 2001, and Trudeau was almost 30 then.

The hypocrisy - and also among some posters here - is just staggering.

Shard

How old were you in 2001?

Paul_Shepherd

I was talking to a colleague about it yesterday, and he bought up this movie, called Tropic Thunder (Ive never heard of it) it stars Robert Downey Jr who plays a black guy….not sure if it was his character playing a black guy in the movie, or if he was a white guy cast to play a black guys part…. I believe it was a spoof comedy so its anyone’s guess…. But its the same thing….and that was 2008. how is that any different?

dbd33

Well, yes, I had a good snort at Andrew Scheer.

Shard

It would be interesting to see a timeline on when this black/brown facing etc fell out of favour. Because there was definitely a time when it was nothing more than spoof comedy. Trudeau is a hyper politically correct pro-diversity guy, so the fact that participated in this kind of dressing up kind of proves that it wasn't really a faux pas at the time. I would say it's only the last ten years. Even that TV presenter at NBC got called out for her opinion on blackface being ok for kids at Halloween, so it's fairly recent.

carcajou

All of those people are hiding something, which is why it's so dangerous for them to virtue signal or try to lead the pitchfork mob. Trudeau should have kept that in mind instead of just arrogantly presuming his skeletons would never see the light of day.

If Scheer gets too indignant I would expect something to be unearthed about him shortly too.

carcajou

You are assuming Trudeau's elected official Facebook persona is also his private persona - I would not make that assumption.

2001 was not back in the days of black and white television and two-week Atlantic crossings. Robert Downey Jr is no role model of society and it's crazy to hold him up as an exemplar of what was publicly acceptable . . . in fact he would be a person to look for as someone deliberately doing something that was unacceptable. People landed in hot water then for a lot of the same things as today. Trudeau, as a teacher, should have been of a higher standard. Clearly someone at his school wasn't happy with his behaviour at the time - I doubt very much there are too many 20 year old West Point Grey yearbooks floating around that Time reporters just happened to be thumbing through.

Shard

I'm not assuming anything about Trudeau's Facebook, because I don't have anything to do with Facebook. However, from the way you write about it, I'm assuming you were younger than me in 2001 (I was late 30's) and therefore possibly not qualifed to make a judgement on what was or was not acceptable at the time. Black and white televison was in the Sixties (including the Minstrels show, etc, etc) and I remember that too. I don't think we can jump to conclusions at WPG, Trudeau has plenty of political and media foes ready to dig up some dirt, and it can't be hard to get copies of old yearbooks.

dbd33

At this level of judgment we're all hiding something.

It's bollocks though to claim to be offended by Trudeau's idiot japes, if you're white you've nothing to be offended about. Being offended at the gap between his attitude and his actions, that I can see, he's a prat but he is a rich Canadian and he was in Vancouver. His exposure to other cultures would have been limited to Monserrat vacations and the occasional Shah dropping by his Dad's house. He's a right to be insensitive.

BristolUK

It's a surprise it wasn't brought up previously. Well, not any time obviously as the current election campaign is good timing. But why not the previous one if you were going to? It's not like he had such a solid lead in the opinion polls to the point it would only have dented support.

2001? I know that The Black and White Minstrel Show has long been considered an 'embarrassment' and certainly way before 2001.
I see the school has issued a statement - "Our 2001 gala event was organized by a culturally diverse group of parent volunteers and was intended to be celebratory and respectful. That said, we recognize cultural sensitivities have evolved over the past 18 years."

Maybe Canada was just a bit less aware than, say, the UK was in 2001. Especially for someone of privileged background.

Shard

I was a bit surprised at the timing too.

However, I have to give Justin the Gold Medal in Contrition! 10/10 ! I've never seen a public figure apologize so openly, profusely and comprehensively. It's genuine too.

macadian

well, apologizing is his forte, he has had so much practice......

Oakvillian

I usually can't stand vox pop bits on radio news, but the various "culturally diverse man or woman in the street" interviews over the last couple of days have been instructive. Nobody except the media and politicians from parties opposed to the liberals seems to have been offended by these photos. Most of the commentary is along the lines of "I'm not offended. I don't know anybody who finds this offensive. Why is it taking up so much attention in the media. Can't we talk about the issues?"

And, of course, Andrew Scheer is completely stymied if he tries to use this as a debating point against Trudeau. In his own words, last Saturday,
I still can't see this whole issue moving the needle in the federal election. To have acknowledged, owned up, apologized and moved on is enough. I think it's a little different when a politician doesn't (can't or won't) own up to the inappropriateness of past behaviour: that tends to allow a wound - real or perceived - to fester and deepen, and become a real electoral issue. This one, not so much.

Shard

NDP guy didn't seem quite so blase about it.