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Trudeau said all Canadians need to stop avoiding difficult questions and take a hard look at systemic discrimination against black Canadians.

“For me, taking that hard look certainly came to a head last fall during the election campaign and reflection on my own choices of many years ago and how that actually hurt people today that I had made really dumb choices that I didn’t understand the consequence for.”

Trudeau said it has prompted him to “be even more committed to standing with this community and fighting every day against the barriers and discrimination that are so invisible to so many people.”

Ien noted that many people thought Trudeau didn’t deserve a second chance after the photos were revealed, that he was an adult in at least one of the photos — dressed as Aladdin at a 2001 costume party at a private school where he was working as a 29-year-old teacher — and should have known better.

Photo by Time Magazine

Trudeau said it was “a moment of deep disappointment” in himself to realize that he’d “really hurt” people who considered him an ally in the fight against anti-black racism.

But he said black leaders across the country encouraged him to turn the mortifying disclosure into something positive for race relations in Canada.

“It will be on my shoulders because that is part of my story now, to make sure that I can then say, ‘This is what we kept working on, this is what we kept doing and this is how we as a team, as a government and me as an individual is working to make sure that … these barriers and this anti-black racism that still exists is directly addressed and minimized across this country for future generations.”‘

After his remarks, Trudeau received a standing ovation from the several hundred people in the predominantly black audience.