Canada's Justin Trudeau pledges assault rifle ban amid blackface scandal

Mr Trudeau campaigned in Toronto on Friday with Canadians due to go to the polls in less than 5 weeks

Justin Trudeau said he would implement a full ban on military-style assault weapons if he's re-elected next month, a popular move in major metropolitan districts the governing Liberals will need to hoShow more

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, embroiled in a blackface picture scandal, on Friday pledged to ban military-style assault rifles in the country's most ethnically diverse city in a bid to get his campaign back on issue.

Mr Trudeau is campaigning in Toronto with less than five weeks to go before his Liberals fight an October 21 national election and two days after at least two bombshell images of him in blackface emerged, as well as a video showing him with blacked up face and body wearing a curly haired wig.

The scandal over the pictures - which could propel the rival Conservative Party into power - is still dominating headlines both at home and abroad.

US President Donald Trump, who has clashed with Trudeau in the past, said in the Oval Office on Friday, "I'm surprised and I was more surprised when I saw the number of times."

Mr Trudeau, 47, sidestepped questions both about Trump's comments and whether the affair had damaged Canada's image abroad, repeating that he was very sorry for what he had done when younger.

Liberals need to hang onto Toronto, Canada's largest city, to have any chance of retaining power. The city has faced a recent escalation in gun violence, and that why Mr Trudeau made his gun ban announcement there.

"Thoughts and prayers aren't going to cut it," Mr Trudeau told a news conference. "We know you do not need a military grade assault weapon, one designed to kill the largest number of people in the shortest amount of time, to take down a deer."

This month, a 17-year-old was killed by gunfire and five other people were wounded in a community just outside of Toronto, and two days later another person was killed in a shooting on a major highway.

Four members of cabinet turned up at the announcement to show their support, including Finance Minister Bill Morneau and Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland. Around two dozen legislators and candidates were also present and Trudeau shook hands or hugged every Liberal on the stage at the end of the event.

Ms Freeland, who represents a parliamentary constituency in Toronto, said in a statement late yesterday she was "troubled and disappointed" by images of the prime minister in blackface, but that she accepted his apology.

Earlier in the day, Mr Trudeau walked down the street in Toronto's Danforth district, where the sitting Liberal member of parliament faces a tough fight.

Most of the people he met seemed delighted to meet him, including a young woman who embraced him four times and posed for a selfie.

Stay-at-home father Stu Simmons said the blackface photo was not important as long as Trudeau did his job.

"I dressed up as The Hulk when I was 18 and no one's going to get mad at me about that, except perhaps the Martians," he told Reuters.

Not everyone was welcoming. "Where's your black face, man?" shouted one woman at Mr Trudeau. "Good morning," he replied.

Liberals said that while the scandal is politically damaging, voters will ultimately be more interested in concrete measures such as the new gun rules.

Those announced on Friday include a buyback program for all legally purchased assault rifles, and a Liberal government would also work with other levels of government to give municipalities the ability to further restrict or ban handguns.

Before the blackface images emerged two days ago, polls showed Mr Trudeau running head-to-head with his main rival, Conservative Party leader Andrew Scheer.

When asked about gun control before Trudeau's announcement, Mr Scheer said he does not believe "blanket bans" are effective and that boosting police resources "to go after criminal and illegal firearms" works better.

Mr Trudeau's campaign was upended when Time magazine on Wednesday published an image of the prime minister, who is known to be a strong advocate for multiculturalism, with his face blackened at a 2001 "Arabian Nights" party when he was a 29-year-old teacher at a Vancouver private school.

Other images have since emerged, and Mr Trudeau said on Thursday he was "wary" of ruling out the existence of even more because he could not remember those that had already come to light.

On Friday, Mr Trudeau said a video that emerged on Thursday showing him with his arms, face and even parts of his legs blackened came from a costume day when he worked as a whitewater rafting guide on the Red River in Quebec, when he was in his early 20s.