Categories for Feature
My latest: Justin Trudeau likens black people to apes. Don’t let him get away with that.
An ape?
The video is grainy. It’s blurry, and it’s hard to make out who is in it.
But we don’t have to guess. The Liberal Party of Canada has confirmed to Global News – which released the video on Thursday morning – that it depicts Justin Trudeau, the leader of the Liberal Party and the Prime Minister of Canada.
Acting like an ape.
In the video, he’s covered (again) in blackface. He really worked at it, too: he made certain to smear dark make-up on his face, neck, ears, arms. Even his legs. We can see through the holes in his jeans that he did that.
There are three photographs, now, of Trudeau in blackface. One from his high school days in Montreal, and two from a party at the high school he taught at in Vancouver. With his hand on an unidentified young woman’s chest.
He was about thirty in that last photo. He was someone who taught kids – who was supposed to be setting an example for kids.
But we digress. Back to the video.
In the video, Justin Trudeau is seen for only a few fleeting seconds. There’s no sound. But it is unmistakable what the future Prime Minister of Canada and his pals are doing.
Trudeau’s acting like an ape. Sticking out his tongue, waving around his arms, shuffling around like a simian would, in a zoo or a jungle or something.
I showed the video to my shocked colleagues when they came into the office. Two of them are card-carrying Liberals. They agree with me: Justin Trudeau was in blackface, acting like an ape.
Now, why would he do that?
Brent Staples is a member of the editorial board of the New York Times. Around the time Roseanne Barr called an advisor to Barack Obama the progeny of an ape, Staples wrote an extensive study about that. About how racists like to depict black people as apes.
Like Justin Trudeau did.
Here’s Staples: “[It’s] one of the oldest and most profoundly racist slanders in American history…This depiction — promoted by slave traders, historians and practitioners of “scientific” racism — was used to justify slavery, lynching and the creation of the Jim Crow state…[It’s] the ape caricature.”
Throwing bananas at black public figures. Making noises like apes at public events. Calling Michelle Obama “an ape in heels.” It’s all aimed at one simple, incontrovertible message: that black people are animals. That they are less than whites. That they belong in cages.
At this point – and with the Trudeau in blackface leading newscasts around the planet – the evidence cannot be rebutted: the Prime Minister of Canada, as man and not just a boy, traded in the foulest racist stereotypes. He thought it was funny. He thought he could get away with it.
So, that’s him: he’s the scum of the Earth. He doesn’t deserve to be elected dogcatcher, let alone a Prime Minister of a G7 country.
Oddly, the issue isn’t him. It’s now the members of the Liberal Party. It’s us.
Will Liberal MPs now publicly condemn their “leader,” as I counselled two distressed Grit MPs to do this morning? They must.
And, Canadians, too, have a decision to make. Will we let him get away with it? Trudeau and his loathsome coterie are laying low, clearly believing this all will blow over in time. And it might, you know.
It is up to us – Canadians – to say: not good enough. Not on. Not this time.
Justin Trudeau – the goddamned Prime Minister of Canada – is on a video, this morning, joking that black people are, you know, apes.
This man is unfit. We, Canadians, must line up on October 21 and reject him and his ways.
We must.
BREAKING: shocking video of our racist Prime Minister in blackface
It’s from 2003, I’m told – more recent than the photos from last night. In it, he acts like an ape – which leaves to wonder if that’s what he thinks black people are like.
It leaves no other option: he must resign.
My latest: this isn’t the face of a Prime Minister
Blackface.
I’ve been writing about, and researching – and opposing – racism for more than thirty years. And make no mistake: blackface isn’t funny.
It’s racist.
Ask Megyn Kelly. A year ago, the former Fox News star was filming a segment about Halloween costumes and “political correctness.” Someone asked whether it was acceptable for a white person to smear black makeup all over their face and pretend to be black.
Here’s what Kelly said: “But what is racist? Because you do get in trouble if you are a white person who puts on blackface on Halloween… Back when I was a kid that was OK, as long as you were dressing up as, like, a character.”
There was a massive backlash. Kelly apologized. But her show was cancelled not long afterwards.
Just this year, Alabama’s governor, Kay Ivey, faced demands that she resign because audio of a skit emerged from when she was in college – even though the person in blackface was her then-fiance. Not her.
Ivey still apologized.
Also this year: upscale fashion brand Gucci fired its global head of diversity because he hadn’t stopped a “balaclava jumper” from going on sale. The jumper featured an image that resembled blackface.
In Canada, we’ve experienced blackface backlash, too. Theatre impresario Robert Lepage faced protests when one of his plays apparently contained scenes that recalled blackface. Some University of Montreal students wore blackface to “pay tribute” to champion runner Usain Bolt. The university was forced to apologize for that.
So why is blackface so controversial? Why is what Justin Trudeau has done so wrong?
Because blackface is literally about white people caricaturing black people. It recalls the era when blacks were referred to as “darkies” and “coons.” It was something popularized in minstrel shows to suggest that blacks were inferior to whites. That they were stupider. That they were deserving of derision and mockery.
David Leonard, a professor at Washington State University, and an expert on the manifestations of racism, says this: “It’s an assertion of power and control. It allows a society to routinely and historically imagine African Americans as not fully human. It serves to rationalize violence and segregation.”
Is Justin Trudeau racist?
Well, his appalling treatment of a proud indigenous woman, Jody Wilson-Raybould, didn’t exactly suggest Trudeau was nearly as tolerant as he regularly claims to be. When asked about Donald Trump’s suggestion that four Democratic politicians “go back” to the “crime infested places” they came from, Justin Trudeau refused to say Trump’s racist statements were in fact racist.
Said Trudeau: “Canadians and indeed people around the world know exactly what I think about those particular comments.”
Do we really?
After Canadians have looked at that shocking photo of the Liberal prime minister mocking and denigrating black people – after the embarrassment and shame he has now brought on Canada internationally – it’s hard to know exactly what Justin Trudeau was thinking. Or if he thinks at all.
At the end of this shocking revelation, we are left with one thought: this is not the face of a prime minister.
Like Megyn Kelly, Justin Trudeau’s little show needs to be cancelled, once and for all.
Warren Kinsella is a Sun columnist and author of five award-winning books on racism.
RESIGN NOW
Justin Trudeau in blackface when he was a teacher.
This guy is unfit for public office.
He needs to resign, but he won’t.
So: fire him on October 21.
Scheer is running a boring, bland, basic campaign – and it seems to be working
I think there a few factors at work here:
- Doug Ford decided to lay low for the Summer and the federal campaign, and it’s helping Andrew Scheer in seat-rich Ontario
- Scheer is offering stuff (pocketbook-related), as is May (climate-related) and so is Singh (anti-corporate-related) – but Justin Trudeau just isn’t
- It’s incredible, but Trudeau is running the same sort of disastrous policy-free “Land is Strong” campaign his Dad embraced in 1972, after his first term – and with likely the same outcome
- As John Moore said to me on Newstalk 1010 this morning, Twitter is not where the campaign is happening – and Scheer, who has more money and a bigger organizational reach than Trudeau, is focussing on the real world, with aggressive voter ID and GOTV
Interesting. Suggests what I’ve heard is true: Ontario is edging away from @JustinTrudeau, and @AndrewScheer – with his relentless pocketbook focus – is the main beneficiary. #elxn43 #cdnpoli pic.twitter.com/fenJetsRAZ
— Warren Kinsella (@kinsellawarren) September 18, 2019
Get ready for Team Trudeau to go neg, big time.
My latest: Trudeau has the power to let her speak
Let her speak.
That was the headline on an iconic Toronto Sun headline way back in February: let her speak.
Let Jody Wilson-Raybould – then still a cabinet minister, then still a member of the Liberal caucus – tell Canadians what she knew about Justin Trudeau’s attempts to influence the prosecution of the corruption trial of Quebec’s SNC-Lavalin, a big donor to his party.
It was important. In early February, the Globe and Mail had revealed that Trudeau and ten of his most-senior advisors had attempted to short-circuit SNC-Lavalin’s prosecution no less than 22 times over a four-month period. Wilson-Raybould said no, 22 times.
It would be wrong, she said. It was obstruction of justice, others would say.
Enraged by this proud Indigenous woman who didn’t know her place, Justin Trudeau demoted Jody Wilson-Raybould to Veteran’s Affairs. But the LavScam story wouldn’t go away. The scandal grew. There was a cancer on the Office of the Prime Minister, and everyone knew it.
Desperate, Trudeau relented somewhat. He issued a cabinet decision permitting Wilson-Raybould to speak about some – but not all – of what she knew. She testified before a Commons committee, and what she had to say plunged the Trudeau regime into one of the biggest scandals in recent Canadian political history.
When she testified, however, Jody Wilson-Raybould made one thing clear: she had more to say. She knew things Canadians needed to know.
But still, Trudeau would not let her tell all. And, even now, with the election campaign underway, Justin Trudeau refuses to let Jody Wilson-Raybould speak.
How long the RCMP have been investigating LavScam is unknown. Trudeau and his senior staff lawyered up months ago, so perhaps it’s been that long. But the Mounties are on the case – and Justin Trudeau is doing his utmost to stymie their investigation. He’s adamantly refused to waive the cabinet confidentiality that would let Wilson-Raybould speak to the police.
Reached by the Sun on Friday, Wilson-Raybould said that she has spoken to the police, and more than once. But she says there’s not much she can say to them, or me.
Said Wilson-Raybould to the Sun: “Thanks for your inquiry. I can confirm that I was interviewed by the RCMP on Tuesday of this week. I am not going to comment any further on the nature of those discussions.”
Not because she doesn’t want to, of course. But because Justin Trudeau – the guy who solemnly promised in 2015 to return ethics to Canadian public life – won’t let her. He says the Clerk of the Privy Council – his personal bureaucrat – makes that decision, not him.
It’s unknown if lie detectors beeped to life across Canada, when the Prime Minister said that on day one of the election campaign. They could have. They should have.
The Clerk serves at the pleasure of the Prime Minister, not the other way around. Trudeau is the boss. That’s not all: decisions of the Prime Minister and his cabinet have the force of law; the Clerk’s doesn’t. Trudeau has true power, not some unelected bureaucrat.
His prevarications are cowardly and craven and dishonest. But they’re not the main reason Justin Trudeau shouldn’t be believed.
The main reason is this: Justin Trudeau, personally, was the one who authorized the February 25, 2019 cabinet decision – number 2019-0105 – to waive confidentiality and permit Jody Wilson-Raybould to appear before the Justice Committee. Right in the very first line, it said the decision had been made “on the recommendation of the Prime Minister,” quote unquote.
Him, Justin Trudeau. Not some bureaucrat. Not a member of his cabinet. Him.
Justin Trudeau had the power then to let Jody Wilson-Raybould speak. Now he claims he doesn’t.
He’s lying.
And he needs to let her speak – because she knows the truth.
My latest: Trudeau’s Seinfeldian campaign launch
Nothing.
That’s what Justin Trudeau had to say when he launched this, the 43rd federal general election. Zero, zippo, zilch.
Oh, sure, he said some stuff. He stood there in front of Rideau Hall, a focus-grouped gaggle of ethnically-diverse Canadians behind him, and he sprayed the usual Trudeau-esque word salad all over the unimpressed ink-stained wretches.
“I’m for moving forward for everyone,” he squeaked, oozing boyish charm. “We’ve all got a choice to make: keep moving forward and build on the progress we’ve made, or go back to the politics of the Harper years.”
Odd, that. Firstly, last time we checked, Stephen Harper isn’t running in this election. And, secondly, if the Liberals’ oxymoronic brain trust think Stephen Harper’s name still evokes fear and loathing from coast to coast to coast, they’re on drugs.
Smart Conservatives say that Harper ain’t reviled like he was four years ago. Not even close. Keep talking about Harper, Grits.
But that isn’t what was so bizarre about Justin Trudeau’s campaign launch. What was bizarre was this: nothing.
Meaning, that’s what he said: nothing. Apart from the jab at a guy who isn’t running, Justin Trudeau didn’t put the minutest amount of effort into defining the so-called ballot question. He didn’t say why he wants to keep being Prime Minister.
Years ago, Ted Kennedy blew his shot at the presidency when he couldn’t answer that eminently-reasonable question, posed to him by CBS’ Roger Mudd. Conversely, on Wednesday, all the other major party leaders said why they wanted the top job.
Invoking her inner Trekkie, the Greens’ Elizabeth May called us Earthlings, and said it’s all about climate change. The NDP’s Jagmeet Singh said the vote is about the little guy and gal, and he’s all for the little people.
Andrew Scheer cheerfully reminded everyone to read up on how Trudeau is stonewalling a police probe of LavScam – and then said the election is about pocketbook stuff, and helping folks get ahead. Which he’ll do.
It’s Politics 101, more basic than never getting photographed while eating something: on Day One, you get your guy or gal to bound up to a microphone and say what the election is all about, and why you are the best guy or gal for the job. And then you charge off to your campaign plane or bus, and head out to the hinterland.
(Unless you’re May and Singh, that is, in which case you will be campaigning on bicycles, or using a brisk walk.)
Justin Trudeau didn’t do that. He did what Teddy Kennedy did: he said nothing, basically.
In fairness to the Liberal leader, there’s not much he can say. After mishandling relations with India, China and the US – to wit, where’s the new NAFTA, Justy? – foreign affairs ain’t anything to brag about. Likewise, domestic affairs: Trudeau has helped to elect seven, count ‘em, seven conservative Premiers across Canada.
Same with ethics: he’s the first Prime Minister in history to be found guilty of violating two federal statutes (over LavScam and the Aga Khan) while still in office.
Fiscal probity? It is to laugh: he giddily broke his solemn promise to balance the budget. Ditto electoral reform. Feminism? Um: Gropegate, elbowed a female MP in the chest, exiled two women who (a) are way smarter than him and who (b) wouldn’t do what he told them to.
And so on, and so on. Justin Trudeau has nothing to say, and nothing he said. So he stepped out into the Ottawa sunshine, that cloying grin playing on the face that isn’t as youthful as it used to be, and said what he’s done to improve Canada, and what he’ll do to improve it if re-elected.
Which, as we say, is nothing.
#LavScam latest: cops interview former AG, Trudeau Libs stonewall
And, Trudeau lies and pins the blame on bureaucrats. From the Globe:
Former justice minister and attorney-general Jody Wilson-Raybould met with RCMP investigators this week to discuss political interference in the criminal prosecution of SNC-Lavalin Group Inc., and is calling on the Trudeau government to waive cabinet confidentiality for her and all other witnesses to allow a thorough probe into potential obstruction of justice.
Ms. Wilson-Raybould told The Globe and Mail on Wednesday that RCMP officers from the national division in Ottawa, which handles sensitive political matters, had a formal interview with her in Vancouver on Tuesday.
“I have had a meeting and I have been interviewed by the RCMP, and that meeting happened yesterday [Tuesday], and I am not going to comment any further on the nature of those conversations,” she said. “Of course I am concerned about the government’s decision to deny [the RCMP’s] request for access to other witnesses. As a matter of principle, the RCMP should be able to conduct thorough and necessary investigations.”
Ms. Wilson-Raybould said the meeting was at the request of the RCMP after several telephone conversations with her following the release of a report from Ethics Commissioner Mario Dion in August.
Mr. Dion said Prime Minister Justin Trudeau violated the Conflict of Interest Act when he and senior officials improperly pressed Ms. Wilson-Raybould to order the Public Prosecution Service to settle a fraud and bribery case against the Montreal-based engineering and construction giant…
The government says Privy Council Clerk Ian Shugart, who reports to Mr. Trudeau, will not waive cabinet confidentiality to allow the national police force to speak to witnesses and obtain cabinet documents relating to SNC-Lavalin.
The Liberal Leader rejected a call from Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer on Wednesday to allow anyone with knowledge of the SNC-Lavalin matter to discuss it freely with the RCMP.
How Justin Trudeau could lose
In it for you.
It’s the New Democrats – now a sad shadow of their former selves – who, ironically, came up with the best slogan for the 2019 federal election campaign: in it for you.
That’s what just about every election campaign is about, this one included. Which party best understands the lives of everyday Canadians. Which leader actually has the best understanding of the struggles your family faces every single day.
Justin Trudeau is at a big disadvantage, here. That’s because Justin wasn’t simply born with silver spoon in his mouth.
It was more like a silver shovel.
Trudeau is the guy who likes to talk about the middle class, a lot. But he has never, ever actually experienced the middle class. Trudeau has never had to worry about paying the rent, or coming up with the next mortgage statement.
He has never wondered where he’ll get the dough to pay a hydro bill. He has never wanted for anything. His life has been one of mansions, private jets, and hanging out with celebrities like the Aga Khan.
Against Andrew Scheer – who grew up in a big immigrant Catholic family, and whose family didn’t have the wealth Trudeau did – the Liberal leader will likely appear privileged and out-of-touch. Scheer worked as a waiter and a salesman.
Trudeau, meanwhile, wears a $15,000 IWC Portuguese Regulateur watch and drives a Mercedes-Benz 300SL he got from his Dad. (Which, apparently, can sell for millions.)
Who is in it for me – who best understands my life?
If the 2019 election ballot question becomes that question, Justin Trudeau is deep, deep trouble. Smart Liberals know this. That’s why Trudeau rolls up his sleeves, and loosens his tie, and rarely wears a suit when on the campaign hustings. That’s why he talks about the middle class all the time.
But not all Liberals are smart.
Last week, some less-than-smart Grits revealed a big poster of Finance Minister Bill Morneau wearing an expensive, tailor-made bespoke suit, tugging at what looked like French cuffs and pricey cufflinks. It didn’t exactly scream “middle class.”
By this week, Liberals had pasted over that unhelpful image with campaign posters.
But the deeply-dumb Liberals weren’t done yet. Shortly afterwards, some of them actually cooked up a hashtag to mock Andrew Scheer’s comparatively-humble beginnings. One of them, a Liberal MP – the heretofore unknown Gagan Sikand, soon to be the former MP for Mississauga-Streetsville – actually tweeted this: “Scheer Was So Poor he had to buy his Conservative Values second-hand from Stephen Harper.”
Sikand, a lawyer, actually wrote that. He actually tweeted that. It was the 2019 campaign’s Beer-and-Popcorn moment: people with more, making fun of people who have less.
Lots of other Liberals went online, too, giddily promoting the “Scheer Was So Poor” hashtag.
It recalled late 2005, when this writer was huddled on a cold bench at a hockey rink somewhere, waiting out a son’s early-morning practice. A revelation hit me: the Liberals were Starbucks, and the Conservatives were Tim Horton’s. The Tories were going to win with a campaign that was aimed at the Tim’s crowd, not the latte-sipping elites who frequent Starbucks. And win they did.
No one should ever underestimate Justin Trudeau’s retail political skills. No one should ever discount his party’s organizational chops.
But if this race truly becomes who is really “in it for you?”
Then Justin Trudeau is going to lose it.