A photograph in a school yearbook where Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau used to teach depicted him in brownface during a gala in 2001.
The picture was taken at West Point Grey Academy’s Arabian Nights-themed gala and shows a 29-year-old Trudeau wearing a turban and robes. His face, neck, and hands are completely darkened to look Middle Eastern.
Vancouver businessman Michael Adamson, who was apart of the academy’s community at the time but did not attend the party, saw the picture in July and said he felt it needed to be made public.
“It was a photo taken while he was teaching in Vancouver, at the school’s annual dinner which had a costume theme of ‘Arabian Nights.’ [Trudeau] attended with friends and colleagues dressed as a character from Aladdin,” Zita Astravas, the media relations lead of the Liberal Party of Canada, told TIME.
While he was not the only one in costume that night, the yearbook shows Trudeau was the only one wearing brownface.
Addressing reporters, Trudeau admitted it was not the first time he wore makeup like that, saying he wore blackface in high school during a talent show.
Trudeau does not agree to resigning over this incident. “We take this on a case by case basis.” He re-iterates that he regrets doing it. #cdnpoli #elxm43
— Anna Desmarais (@anna_desmarais)
September 19, 2019
Democratic Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam came under fire in a similar incident after his 1984 Eastern Virginia Medical School yearbook page showed one man in blackface and another in a Ku Klux Klan outfit. Northam at first admitted to being in the photo, without specifying which person was him, only to later deny either person was him.
