Liberal Judy Sgro apologizes for ‘insensitive’ blackface comments

By News Staff

Liberal candidate Judy Sgro has apologized for “insensitive” comments made about black people liking Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau more after he posed in brown- and blackface.

In an interview with online broadcaster GBKM.FM, interviewer Jacquline Dixon asked the longtime Liberal MP what sort of reaction she had received in the federal riding of Humber River-Black Creek surrounding Trudeau’s “blackface” incident.

Sgro defended the Liberal leader for “something that was done 20 years ago,” adding that all of us at one time or another have “made poor choices.”

“In knocking on doors and talking to people to make sure that I’m as sensitive as I need to be if I’ve missed something, those in the black community have told me how much more love they have for the Prime Minister, that he wanted to have a blackface, that he took great pride in that too,” said Sgro.

Sgro added that it’s the media that have “blown this into something that it shouldn’t be.”

The interview with Sgro was conducted on September 28 but only came to light when Toronto-based writer Andray Domise posted the comments on social media Wednesday.

Sgro issued a brief statement, in which she apologized for her “insensitive” comments.

“I should have known better,” said Sgro. “The history of blackface is deeply racist and it is nothing other than discriminatory. This issue has sparked an important conversation in our country and needs to be treated with great seriousness and sensitivity. I will continue to have these important conversations with my constituents.”

Last month, Time magazine published a photo of Trudeau in dark makeup at a 2001 “Arabian Nights” party organized by West Point Grey Academy, the Vancouver private school where he was a teacher. The photo was in the school yearbook.

Two more instances of Trudeau wearing blackface quickly emerged.

Trudeau has apologized for wearing brown- and blackface, which he says he now understands to be racist.

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