Trudeau says Canada also has ‘work to do’

WASHINGTON • America’s anger, frustration and discord boiled over in Minnesota’s Twin Cities on Friday at a remarkable moment in the history of the United States, sparked by the collision of racial injustice, freedom of expression and the worst public health crisis of the last 100 years.

Af ter more than two months of pandemic- induced, self- imposed exile, protesters in Minneapolis — some wearing face masks to ward off COVID-19 — laid waste to city streets after the police killing Monday of George Floyd, an unarmed black man. His torturous eight final minutes of life were spent begging for mercy, a white police officer kneeling on his neck.

All of it prompted Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, unbidden, to do something he rarely does: comment publicly on another country’s domestic affairs.

“Anti- black racism, racism, is real; it’s in the United States, but it’s also in Canada,” Trudeau said Friday as he wrapped up his daily briefing outside his home at Rideau Cottage in Ottawa.

More than once he used “anti-black racism,” a specific phrase that black communities have long advocated for in order to distinguish the express injustices black people face in Canada and around the world from other forms of discrimination.

“We need as a society to stand together, to stand up against discrimination, to be there for each other in respect, but also understand that we have work to do as well in Canada in our systems,” Trudeau said.

“I call on all Canadians — whether it’s anti-black racism or anti- Asian racism or racism discrimination of any type, to stand together in solidarity, to be there for each other and know just how deeply people are being affected by what we see on the news these past few days.”

Racial unrest, often sparked by deadly police action against black Americans, is nothing new in the U. S. But in a polarized country near the end of Donald Trump’s fractious and controversial first term, its economy now plumbing Great Depression depths in the midst of a pandemic that has claimed more than 100,000 lives, the conflict feels like a new low-water mark.

“Moments like this are always profound — and profound for the way in which they set us apart,” said Chris Sands, a Canada-u.s. scholar.