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Letters Sept. 20: Trudeau and blackface

We are facing bigger issues Re: “Trudeau sorry for wearing ‘brownface’ ” in 2001,” Sept. 19. Have our elections become so sordid that points can only be scored by digging up as much perceived dirt as possible to discredit the other side.
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Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau makes a statement in regards to photo coming to light of himself from 2001 wearing "brownface" during a scrum on his campaign plane in Halifax, N.S., on Wednesday, September 18, 2019. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Sean Kilpatrick

We are facing bigger issues

Re: “Trudeau sorry for wearing ‘brownface’ ” in 2001,” Sept. 19.

Have our elections become so sordid that points can only be scored by digging up as much perceived dirt as possible to discredit the other side. No doubt there will be a flurry of indignant letters to the editor about the photo of Justin Trudeau dressed as a character from Aladdin.

I will bet not too many of them are from my age group (I am 82). I belong to the generation whose parents fought the Second World War so that the world could be safe from bigotry and intolerance. As an eight-year-old child I saw the horrific photos of German concentration camps. Those images have never left me, so forgive me if I can’t get too fussed up about Trudeau going to a fancy-dress party in a white bed sheet, turban and brown makeup almost 20 years ago, when we weren’t so politically correct.

Watching him grovel and the opposition leaders working themselves into a state of righteous indignation is embarrassing. There are so many important issues to deal with such as delivering better health care, obliterating poverty and homelessness not to mention extreme climate change leading to mass migration, hunger and the rise of facism. We need party leaders who can convince the electorate that they can solve these larger problems instead of indulging in this mean-spirited behaviour when they are campaigning.

Jan M’Ghee
Sidney

His actions were more than a mistake

Justin Trudeau repeatedly apologized for making a mistake. A mistake is when you add 2 + 2 and get 5. What he did was a moral failing and to characterize it as a mistake is disingenuous.

If he hadn’t figured out that racism was wrong at 29, I humbly suggest things haven’t changed that much except for the fact that he wants to be re-elected as prime minister.

Greg Robinson
North Saanich

What if you dress up as a Viking?

Come on people, get a grip! Being of Nordic heritage, I definitely want an apology from everyone who has ever dressed up as a Viking for a costume party, for appropriating my cultural identity.

I hope everyone who has kids will not allow them to dress up as witches this Halloween, because witches have feelings, too, you know.

Merrianne Holm
Victoria

Not offended, disappointed or shocked

Let me begin by saying that I am a person of colour. I don’t understand the upset regarding Justin Trudeau in costume and brownface. I also want to mention that I am not voting for Trudeau this time around because he sailed B.C. down the river with the pipeline. Not for any other reason.

Both incidents with Trudeau were on costume night and no stereotypical exaggerations of people with brown skin were made by him. He only wore brown skin. So what? This does not offend me, disappoint me, shock me, or make me think that he is unfit to lead the country.

How about people who use white face as mimes and clowns? If we are to think that putting on a brown face is racist, then putting on a white face must also be carried right across the board as racist as well. But it is not. Why not?

Sherry Krieger
Esquimalt

A need for more class and intelligence

Being a Conservative voter, I had hoped Andrew Scheer would have more class and intelligence then to join the rest of the party leaders in calling Trudeau racist for going to a costume party 20 years ago dressing as a fictional character. The only politician showing common sense was Andrew Weaver. It’s no wonder people have very little regard for politicians with the nonsensical garbage spewed out at election time.

I have not met one person who feels this is an issue worth discussing or relevant. It’s all about making the other guy look as bad as possible.

Richard Newman
Saanich

Trudeau has weak grasp of truth

In his apology, Justin Trudeau acknowledged that in the vetting process he went through six or so years ago to become the Liberal party’s leader, he did not disclose the blackface incidents. He states he was embarrassed. Assuming that his statement of non-disclosure is true, it must also be realized that such an admission would, under any normal rules of morality, have meant he was probably unfit to be leader. Unless he was born under a log, Trudeau must have realized this.

The conclusion to be drawn from this is that Trudeau obtained his leadership role by fraud.

Trudeau’s grasp of truth has been demonstrated to be weak, an example of this being his initial denial of knowledge of the pressure on the attorney general in the SNC-Lavalin affair.

If he actually did tell the Liberals about the blackface and they proceeded with his leadership, then the Liberals are a party to his deception. In effect, denying he told the party minimizes the damage this incident has raised, and is a motive to lie about it.

The blackface incidents are serious enough, but Trudeau’s attempted explanation about it have their own sordidness.

Trudeau went on to say the layers of privilege he grew up under blinded him to the obvious wrong of blackface and to the hurt it would inflict. Wow! Is this another acknowledgement by Trudeau that he was unfit for the office?

Terry Sturgeon
Victoria

We should accept Trudeau’s apology

I am no fan of Justin Trudeau. Never was. Never will be. I hope he is not re-elected. However, I do not believe he needs to do any more than apologize, as he has done, for the incidences that occurred.

First of all they were long ago during a very different cultural time. Secondly, he has apologized to those offended and recognized how foolish it all was. There is no doubt this will never happen again with him.

However, imagine if the name in this story was Andrew Scheer. There would be endless protests by liberals up to and including the election. They would not let it go. The silence on the left and the hypocrisy of all that will be very evident over the coming weeks.

I encourage every fair-minded person and, in particular, everyone who opposes Trudeau as I do, to accept his apology with grace and set an example of how these things really should be handled.

Edwin Pickard
Victoria

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