Canadian PM Justin Trudeau's brownface scandal emerges amid reelection campaign

With less than five weeks to go before a national vote, Time magazine published a picture of Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Wednesday in brownface from a 2001 “Arabian Nights” party when he was a 29-year-old teacher at a private school in Vancouver .

After apologizing to Canadians in a hastily staged meeting with the media on his campaign plane on Wednesday, Trudeau held a conference call for all his 338 candidates on Thursday.

Even before the brownface scandal , the race going into the October 21 vote was tight. But the release of the bombshell images could be a turning point , in part because Liberals have traditionally attracted support from immigrant communities .

Trudeau has championed racial equality and diversity as prime minister over the past four years, and he has three prominent ministers of Indian descent in his cabinet.

On Wednesday, Trudeau also admitted to performing “ Day O ”, a traditional Jamaican song made famous by Harry Belafonte , in brownface during a high school talent show years earlier.

The Canadian Broadcasting Corp then published a picture from the performance that a Liberal spokeswoman confirmed as authentic.

Trudeau’s brownface picture scandal

deepened on Thursday as new damaging images emerged , and the Liberal leader reached out to his candidates in next month’s federal election to apologize.

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put out a video showing Trudeau again in dark make-up making faces and sticking his tongue out. It was not immediately clear exactly when that video was from.

“We can confirm that it is him and it’s from the early 1990s ,” a Liberal official said.

Trudeau has seen his once sky-high popularity hurt by a series of missteps , including a ruling last month by a top watchdog that he had breached ethics rules by pressuring the former justice minister to ensure a major construction firm avoid a corruption trial.

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