It was the second photo that particularly shocks Yuvraj Singh — the one in which Justin Trudeau is grinning beneath full dark makeup, his arms around two men who, like him, are wearing turbans.“I feel like that picture is making fun of my culture,” Singh says, speaking outside the Gurdwara Dasmesh Darbar temple in the riding of Brampton East.At nearby Castlebrooke Secondary School, 17-year-old Anoushka Aurora wants to know why the Liberal leader kept it a secret, why he couldn’t use his own past to lead a discussion on racism. “He should have taken ownership,” she says.For Jhanoi Walker, a student at York University in the riding of Humber River—Black Creek, there’s one question that lingers: “Why did he think this was a good idea?”Across the GTA on Thursday, people of colour told the Star how they were reacting to the fact Canada’s most powerful politician chose to wear blackface makeup. Between now and election day, the Star is looking at how local issues are shaping the campaign, and although those photos did not happen locally, the anger, disappointment and confusion they caused emphatically did.According to the 2016 census, slightly fewer than half of GTA residents identify as visible minorities; more than a majority in the cities of Toronto, Ajax, Mississauga, Richmond Hill, Brampton and Markham. In them, Trudeau’s Liberals head into the Oct. 21 election holding all but one riding (Markham-Unionville, held by Conservative incumbent Bob Saroya). In the GTA as a whole, they hold all but three. Many people the Star spoke to for this story had a complex reaction; most, but not all, said they could forgive.Ibrahim Mohamed, 24, who lives in Toronto’s Jane and Finch neighbourhood said he’s “not OK” with the photos, but accepts Trudeau’s apology. “I just don’t believe that man’s a racist,” Mohamed said. “I’ve never thought my po ...
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