Senator trolls Trudeau over blackface with Apollo Creed joke

Wednesday night independent Senator Patrick Brazeau mocked Trudeau by asking him on Twitter to a boxing rematch on Halloween, suggesting Trudeau could dress up as Apollo Creed — a fictional black boxer in the classic Rocky films.

“Ok, let me make this clear: I am officially asking a rematch with [Justin Trudeau]. I suggest Halloween Day and you can come as Apollo Creed! This time, I will be Rocky in Rocky II.”

Back in 2012, Trudeau and Brazeau famously fought each other in the ring for a charity boxing match, in which Trudeau won handily after the ref stopped it in the third round.

In an interview right after the match, Brazeau suggested a rematch for the following year, and has asked for a rematch subsequently, but Trudeau has always declined.

Brazeau’s tongue-in-cheek tweet refers to Trudeau’s recent blackface scandal and his penchant for dress up. Last weekend the Toronto Star released a clearer video of Trudeau in blackface but then quickly removed it. The Post Millennial found a copy on Twitter shortly thereafter and reported on it, with the video receiving over 3 million views.

Brazeau and Trudeau’s fortunes went in drastically different directions after the match. Brazeau, previously a Conservative senator, was suspended from his position as a Senator following multiple charges laid against him, eventually pleading guilty to simple assault and cocaine possession. He worked at a strip club when suspended. He’s also suffered from mental health issues.

Trudeau would go on to win the Liberal leadership and become Canada’s 23rd prime minister.

In a 2017 Rolling Stone profile of Trudeau, the author describes how the boxing match was helpful for building Trudeau’s political brand and how Trudeau saw an Indigenous Brazeau as the perfect heel or “foil”.

“The victory was twofold: It showed that Trudeau could back up his words, and that the stereotypically weak-kneed Liberal Party could take a punch,” wrote the Rolling Stone author.

“Five years and a few miles away, Trudeau mischievously smiles when I ask how much of the boxing match had been planned out. ‘It wasn’t random,’ Trudeau says. ‘I wanted someone who would be a good foil, and we stumbled upon the scrappy tough-guy senator from an indigenous community. He fit the bill, and it was a very nice counterpoint.’ Trudeau says this with the calculation of a CFO in a company-budget markup session. ‘I saw it as the right kind of narrative, the right story to tell,’ he says.”From the Rolling Stone profile.

The tweet mocking Trudeau came the same day the Liberal Leader had a photo-op at a boxing gym where journalists were invited to only film and take photos of him working out.