‘It just didn’t seem to register with Justin’
Arabian Nights gala guests were ‘taken aback’
VANCOUVER/TORONT O • On the evening of Feb. 24, 2001, Justin Trudeau breezed into the palatial Fairmont hotel overlooking Vancouver harbour for a charity gala.
The invitations had said it was “black tie,” with an “Arabian Nights” theme in the form of belly dancers and Middle Eastern music.
More than 500 guests showed up. All the men wore tuxedos. Except Trudeau. He had painted his face, hands and feet black, donned billowing robes, and placed a turban on his head. Not one other person was in blackface.
If the future Canadian prime Minister felt any embarrassment at his jaw-dropping faux pas, he didn’t show it.
“We were taken aback when he walked in, but it just didn’t seem to register with Justin,” one guest told The Sunday Telegraph. “It was like The Black and White Minstrel Show, and, you know, golliwogs. It was not OK.”
The gala was held to raise money for the private West Point Grey Academy, where the 29-year-old Trudeau was teaching maths, humanities, social studies, French, and drama.
No one appears to have said anything to him about his attire. Those present said they put it down to him being “larger than life” and a known “character.”
But for some it was the elephant in the room all evening.
“People didn’t say anything to his face because of who he was,” said one guest. “We didn’t know then he’d go into politics or anything, but he was still Justin Trudeau.
“We just thought he was somebody who was privileged and should have known better. But I thought it was wrong at the time and so did others.”
The Telegraph can disclose that the woman photographed in the arms of Trudeau was Mariam Matossian, a fellow teacher. Matossian, who is of Armenian descent, later embarked on a career as a writer and performer of Armenian folk songs. The Telegraph was unable to reach her for comment.
The other three women in the photograph were also understood to be teachers.
Roger Husband, who made a promotional video shown at the event, said Trudeau’s appearance “stood out.” He added: “It was staggering. It was almost overpowering.”
The evening raised $160,000 for the academy and the photographs went up on the school wall for children to see. The school was established in 1996 in an area that had no co-educational schools, and was founded as a “progressive” institution on a spot overlooking English Bay.
Trudeau left the school a few months after the incident, moving to the nearby Sir Winston Churchill Secondary School. No one has suggested it was the reason for him leaving.
Honey Madan, whose Sikh husband and brother posed with the blackfaced Trudeau in another photograph that emerged last week, said: “It wasn’t racist. You go to Halloween parties and you dress up.”
Trudeau and the Liberals are neck and neck with the Conservatives ahead of the Oct. 21 election.
Global News obtained a separate video of him in blackface in the early nineties, and said it came from a “source within the Conservative party.”
Trudeau apologized twice this week, saying that he did not realize it was racist at the time but now does.
On Friday, Trudeau hit the campaign trail in Toronto. The Liberals need to hang on to Canada’s largest city to have any chance of retaining power.
On the street, a woman yelled: “Where’s your blackface?” He replied: “Good morning.”
Aleen Pogue, 62, a supporter who runs a clothing shop in Toronto, said: “I know he’s not racist. This is a distraction from a lot more important things.”
She added: “It was a fabulous outfit.”
IT WAS LIKE THE BLACK AND WHITE MINSTREL SHOW . ... IT WAS NOT OK.