Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says he “regrets” comments he made about Sen. Patrick Brazeau in a recent interview with Rolling Stone magazine.
Indigenous advocates denounced Trudeau’s comments in the U.S. magazine’s August issue where he referred to Brazeau as “the scrappy tough-guy senator from an Indigenous community.”
Trudeau’s comments referred to his victory in a 2012 charity boxing match against Brazeau, who is from the Kitigan Zibi Anishinabeg First Nation in Quebec.
In an interview with CBC Radio One in Vancouver, Trudeau now says he regrets his choice of language in describing Brazeau.
He says the way he characterized Brazeau “doesn’t contribute to the positive spirit of reconciliation.”
Trudeau says he and his government have been working with Indigenous leaders and communities and he recognizes there are “a lot of patterns to change.”