The Canadian media may not be interested in asking tough questions of Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, but there are still some people willing to grill Trudeau over his recently surfaced blackface photos.
Last week, Trudeau truned up on the Canadian Facebook Watch program, “New Mom, Who Dis?” where the host occasionally invites groups of children for question and answer periods with famous guests. The guest appearance was promoted as a no-holds-barred discussion with Trudeau, who is running for a second term: “Nothing is off the table as [Host Jessica] Cruickshank and the PM sit down for a funny and honest discussion about family life, raising kids, and the impact his policies have on families and children.”
The interview, a promotional email trumpeted, “captures the Prime Minister like never seen before — sharing light-hearted family stories but also answering hard-hitting policy questions and taking real questions from real kids.”
They weren’t kidding.
Seated in a tiny chair and surrounded by kids, Trudeau clearly thought he’d be able to hit all his campaign talking points — and field softball questions from a group of Kindergartners assembled for the occasion. But a teaser clip of the show released Wednesday shows him backed into a corner over blackface by adorable twin girls.
WATCH:
Heartbreaking to hear these kids ask this. pic.twitter.com/u3Vuj8TGEq
— Stephen Taylor (@stephen_taylor) October 9, 2019
The two girls, who are black, confronted Trudeau over a series of photos and videos that surfaced late last month showing Trudeau in blackface. The photos, which Trudeau wrote off as from a “different time” and evidence of his less-woke youth, were from the early 2000s, when Trudeau clearly should have known better.
“I want you to ask Mr. Prime Minister anything you want, and he has to answer honestly because what kind of a monster lies to a child?” the host prompts.
Why did you paint your face brown?” a the tiny pair ask Trudeau.
“It was something I shouldn’t have done, cause it hurt people,” Trudeau asnwered, clearly flustered by the question. “It’s not something that you, you should do. And, that is something that I learned. I didn’t know it back then, but I know it now. And I’m sorry I hurt people.”
The answer wasn’t good enough for the twins, who pressed on: “But did you paint your nose and your hands brown?”
“Mmmhmm, yeah. And it was the wrong thing to do. And I had a good conversation with my kids around taking responsibility for mistakes, and making sure that we’re always sticking up for each other, and not teasing each other, and being respectful towards each other,” Trudeau stammered.
“And I’m sorry that I hurt you as well. I’m sorry that I hurt kids, who, you know, get face teasing and discrimination because, because of the color of their skin. That’s just not right in this country, or anywhere around the world, and we all have to work together to make sure that that doesn’t happen, ok?”
The two girls nodded at this last part and sat down.
Trudeau is facing an uphill battle to re-election. Before the blackface photos surfaced, Trudeau was having difficulty explaining away a controversy within his government, which saw him and several of his top aides accused of bullying a female, indigenous attorney general who dared to open an investigation into an oil company with ties to Trudeau and his friends.