For the first time during a press briefing, the Canadian Prime Minister was caught off-guard and visibly overwhelmed by a question about the current situation in the United States.?
In the past few days, the United States has been in a state of pandemonium, with raging protests tearing through 150 cities. When a journalist asked PM Trudeau about Trump's call for military action, he apparently had to take a 21-second pause before answering, a move that reveals a lot some say.
After the pause, Trudeau avoided naming Trump in his response and shifted the focus upon race relations and tensions in Canada. In all fairness, the reporter did ask him to simply share a message in case he wasn't willing to answer.?
"We all watch in horror and consternation what's going on in the United States," he finally said. "It is a time to pull people together, but it is a time to listen."
"It is a time to learn what injustices continue despite progress over years and decades. But it is a time for us as Canadians to recognise that we too have our challenges," he said.
"That black Canadians and racialised Canadians face discrimination as a lived reality every single day," Trudeau continued. "There is systemic discrimination in Canada, which means our systems treat Canadians of color, Canadians who are racialized, as differently than they do others."
Canada in recent days has seen relatively small, peaceful protests in solidarity with US demonstrators. Canadian protests supporting Black Lives Matter have sprung up in Montreal, Halifax, Toronto and Regina, the provincial capital of Saskatchewan, reports NPR.?
In 2019, Trudeau's re-election campaign was allegedly disrupted after pictures of him wearing brownface makeup to a party at the private school went viral.?
The picture was taken at an ¡°Arabian Nights¡±-themed gala. It shows Trudeau, then the 29-year-old son of the late former Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau, wearing a turban and robes with his face, neck and hands completely darkened.?In his defence, Trudeau admitted he could not remember how often he had worn blackface makeup.?