Raymond de Souza: Yes, the world's a stage for Trudeau ... and people are just his props
Trudeau could have said sorry and let Jagmeet Singh decide how to handle the brownface scandal publicly. But the PM didn't want it done backstage; he wanted the spotlight
Father Raymond J. de Souza, September 27, 2019, 12:23 PM EDT, https://nationalpost.com/news/...e-are-just-his-props
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau balances a toddler alongside local Liberal candidate Andrea Kaiser, during a campaign stop in Niagara Falls on Sept. 23, 2019.
A week into the Justin Trudeau blackface drama, there has been praise for the comments and conduct of NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh — beginning with praise from Conservative party Leader Andrew Scheer.
Singh deserves much credit for refusing to be used “as a tool in (Trudeau’s) exoneration,” as he put it. Trudeau had asked for a meeting with Singh in order to personally apologize, but Singh saw it for what it was, a desire to set a scene in which Trudeau the apparently-mortified and latterly-enlightened would take centre stage, and Singh would be there as a prop. Singh refused that scenario, and took a private call from Trudeau instead, with the press alerted only afterwards.
Of course, if Trudeau had just wanted to apologize he could have simply called Singh without announcing to the country that he desired a public meeting in which to offer his ostentatious contrition. He could have said sorry and let Singh decide how to handle it publicly. But Trudeau did not want something done backstage; he wanted the spotlight.
Trudeau … wanted the spotlight
My colleague Joseph Brean looked at the “high school drama teacher” angle of Trudeau’s explanations for his pattern of blackface appearances — too numerous to remember, apparently — in these pages last Saturday. Yet there is another angle to that, not so much that the prime minister likes to be melodramatic in the lead role, but that he regards everyone else as props.
That’s what he wanted to do to Jagmeet Singh. Trudeau has been doing that a long time.
Look again at the photo from the gala at West Point Grey Academy. There is Trudeau, clearly the belle of the ball, blackened hand firmly planted in Joe-Bidenesque style on the bare chest of the young woman in front of him. Not only bizarre and racist, but creepy, too. And the women in the photo appear not as Trudeau’s friends enjoying the gala, but as props in the photo. Later, he finds two turbaned Sikhs for another such photo.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau seen in brownface.
Recall those photos with Jody Wilson-Raybould, back when Trudeau was playing the role of great Indigenous advocate? Not only the one of him gazing into her eyes at the swearing-in at Rideau Hall, but the private meeting when he asked her to serve as attorney-general. The photographer was on hand to make available the image of Trudeau leaning-in toward his most powerful Indigenous prop. Wilson-Raybould would discover later that when the scene concludes on stage, the old props are discarded.
The video of Trudeau mocking the Aboriginal protesters at the Liberal party fundraiser was even more illuminating, as it was not subject to the customary elaborate staging. Here Trudeau was in partisan mode, playing the role of a leader who could raise money even from his opponents. No matter that the protesters were there to complain about mercury poisoning. They could well serve as props for his jokes.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau speaks with Minister of Justice Jody Wilson-Raybould during her swearing-in at Rideau Hall on Nov.4, 2015, in Ottawa.
It is, in light of the blackface costume in 2001, remarkable that Trudeau did not actually wear a turban on his Indian visit. But we saw the same instinct. The vast country of India was reduced to an elaborate set for Trudeau’s costumes, and the people he met were just props on stage. The fact that there was a paucity of actual government meetings was the logical consequence; actors do not speak to the props.
Trudeau’s response to his blackface history was to employ others as props in aid of recovery. Defence Minister Harjit Sajjan proved a willing prop; Singh did not. But the most audacious attempt was to enlist the whole country as props in the Trudeau blackface drama.
That’s what Trudeau was doing when he suggested that this was an occasion for all of us to learn about racism. It was a reprise of the Kokanee grope response, and perhaps was suggested by his advisers as they beheld the creepy dimension of the blackface photo.
Wearing blackface is not a society-wide problem. Has anyone in your widest circle of acquaintances ever seen anyone in even modest blackface, let alone the full-body treatment that Trudeau customarily employed? Of course not. But instead of the country serving as an audience to judge the quality of his performance, Trudeau would prefer to have all of us be props in his drama. It is more convenient that way, for the props do not write the script. Singh refused to be used a prop. That’s an act the country should follow.