More damaging images are coming out of Justin Trudeau wearing blackface

Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau says he never told anyone he had worn blackface years ago because he was too embarrassed.

Controversy erupted around Trudeau’s re-election campaign late Wednesday following the release of a 2001 photo of him wearing dark paint on his hands and face while dressed as Aladdin in a turban.

Trudeau apologized and acknowledged his decision to wear blackface was racist when he spoke to reporters in Winnipeg Thursday. He said he is not the man today who he was years ago but acknowledged he had a “massive blindspot”

More images of Trudeau in skin-darkening face paint, including a brief video from the early 1990s revealed by Global News, have since surfaced.

Trudeau says he didn’t recall some of those earlier images and that he didn’t see at the time that it was wrong because of his privileged upbringing. He said Thursday he was aware of two of them, and he’s never spoken about them because he was embarrassed.

He repeated his apology to Canadians, after first issuing one late last night after the first photo was published.

He says he’s spent his political career trying to counter intolerance and racism and hopes that people he’s offended still can see him as an ally in that fight.

With files from The Canadian Press

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