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Canada's Justin Trudeau can't say how often he wore blackface | |
(32 minutes later) | |
Canada's PM Justin Trudeau admits he cannot remember how often he wore blackface, as the row deepens ahead of an election in October. | |
He was speaking on the day that more images of him wearing black make-up when he was younger emerged. | |
"I am wary of being definitive about this because the recent pictures that came out, I had not remembered," he told reporters in Winnipeg. | |
The revelations have rattled his campaign in a tight re-election race. | |
A new video came to light on Thursday in which he is seen in a white T-shirt and torn jeans, his face and limbs covered in black make-up. | |
In the footage, shot in the 1990s, he is seen laughing, throwing his hands in the air, sticking his tongue out and pulling faces. | |
What is in the video? | |
The footage, first obtained by Global News, shows Mr Trudeau in a white T-shirt and torn jeans. According to his Liberal Party, it was shot in the 1990s. | |
His face and limbs appear to be covered in black make-up. He is seen laughing, throwing his hands in the air, sticking his tongue out and pulling faces. | |
Mr Trudeau would have been in his late teens or early 20s. | |
Blackface, which was more prevalent in the past, particularly in the entertainment industry, involves white people painting their faces darker - and is widely condemned as a racist caricature. | |
What about the other episodes? | |
On Wednesday, the embattled PM apologised for wearing brownface make-up at a gala at a private Vancouver school where he taught nearly two decades ago. | |
The 2001 yearbook picture obtained by Time Magazine shows Mr Trudeau, then aged 29, with skin-darkening make-up on his face and hands at the West Point Grey Academy. | |
Mr Trudeau dressed up in the photo in an Aladdin costume. | |
The second image to emerge on Wednesday shows Mr Trudeau performing in a talent show as a student at high school. | |
He wore blackface and sang Day-O, a Jamaican folk song popularised by American civil rights activist Harry Belafonte. | |
How did Trudeau respond? | |
The images are so embarrassing for the prime minister because he has positioned himself as a champion of social justice, inclusivity and diversity. | |
When the cabinet was sworn in in 2015, it was hailed as diverse - half the appointments were women; three were Sikhs and two members were from indigenous communities. | |
Speaking in Winnepeg, he said: "Darkening your face regardless of the context or the circumstances is always unacceptable because of the racist history of blackface. | |
"I should have understood that then and I never should have done it." | |
What reaction has there been? | |
Referring to the brownface episode, Andrew Scheer, leader of the opposition Conservatives, said the picture was racist in 2001 and was racist now. | |
"What Canadians saw this evening is someone with a total lack of judgement and integrity and someone who is not fit to govern this country," he said. | |
New Democratic Party leader Jagmeet Singh, a Sikh, said the image was "troubling" and "insulting". | |
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