When asked what he thought of President Trump’s call for military action against American protesters and the tear gassing of peaceful demonstrators to make way for a photo-op, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau paused at his podium for 21 uncomfortable, televised seconds.

He opened his mouth, then shut it — twice. He softly groaned.

Finally, in a scene on Tuesday that has now spread wildly around the Internet, Trudeau said: “We all watch in horror and consternation what’s going on in the United States.”

From their perch above the US, Canadians have been watching in shock as the country they’ve long considered their closest friend and protector now seems like a crazed, erratic and dangerous stranger.

Most of the country’s horror has been focused on President Trump. Even the country’s conservative newspapers were filled with columns like one by Gary Mason stating, “There couldn’t be a scarier person inhabiting the White House at this very moment.”

“It’s deliberate what he’s doing. He’s deliberately stoking anger so he can run a law-and-order platform,” concurred Janice Stein, the founding director of the University of Toronto’s Munk School of Global Affairs. “It’s horrifying.”

Most Canadians soured on President Trump two years ago when he placed tariffs on their country’s steel and aluminum exports, threatened to cut Canada out of the continental free trade deal and insulted Trudeau as “very dishonest and weak” moments after leaving the Group of 7 summit, which Trudeau had hosted.

But, during the pandemic, public opinion of President Trump has sunk to even lower levels among Canadians.

While politicians here have set aside their partisan differences to work together to protect Canadians from the coronavirus, Trump is viewed as politicising the pandemic for his re-election effort.

“My view is one of profound sadness — sadness at watching communities we respect being so torn apart, and sadness at watching the loss of life in the pandemic,” said Frank McKenna, a former premier of New Brunswick and a former Canadian ambassador to the US. “The United States is so polarised, the question of wearing a mask or not is fraught with political overtones. It’s excruciating to watch.”

Prime Minister Trudeau, however, dared not openly criticise President Trump in his response on Tuesday. Instead, like many other Canadian leaders, he chose to ruminate on racism against black Canadians and other minorities.

Protests in support of George Floyd, the black man who was killed in police custody in Minneapolis, occurred across the country last weekend and in Toronto were connected to the death of Regis Korchinski-Paquet — a 29-year-old black woman who plunged from her family’s high-rise apartment shortly after the police arrived.

The incident is being investigated by a police oversight unit.

“It is a time for us as Canadians to recognise that we too have our challenges,” said Prime Minister Trudeau, whose own record on race was badly tarnished after old photos of him wearing blackface and brownface at parties surfaced during the 2019 re-election campaign.

Some found themselves wondering about the real Trudeau.

“Is it the one behind closed doors, the one when the cameras are turned off that no one sees?” asked Jagmeet Singh, a Sikh and the leader of the Left-leaning New Democratic Party. “Is that the real Trudeau? Because more and more, it seems like it is.”

Trudeau apologised for his conduct, saying he was “deeply sorry” for the three occasions he wore blackface or brownface, as a student in the 1990s and as a teacher at a private prep school in 2001.

But many people on social media and national talk shows rejected Trudeau’s claim that wearing brownface was not generally viewed as racist in 2001, when he appeared in dark make-up and a turban in two photos.

“Do I think Trudeau is a racist? No,” said Jaskaran Singh Sandhu, a political consultant who has worked for all three major parties in Canada. “Do I think these acts in and of themselves are racist? Yes. It seems to me that this really, really reeks of privilege.”

Evan Sambasivam, from Toronto, said it was difficult to reconcile his support for Trudeau’s Liberal Party with his Sri Lankan descent. “I don’t know if I will end up voting for someone else, but if I excuse Trudeau, then I excuse anyone else guilty of making a mockery of my skin colour,” he said.

New York Times News Service