Justin Trudeau's 21 seconds of silence on Trump's actions said more than words ever could

The usually eloquent and sharp prime minister of Canada, Justin Trudeau was briefly lost for words on Tuesday when he was asked for his thoughts on the ongoing situation in the United States.

Specifically, Trudeau was asked for his thoughts on Donald Trump's threatening to use military force against protests who have taken to the streets in the last week to demand justice following the death of George Floyd who was killed by a police officer in Minneapolis.

Rather than jumping straight into his thoughts on the issue, Trudeau had to stop himself and think about what he was going to say about a story that would have seemed inconceivable, even in Trump's worst moments.

Trudeau was asked by a reporter what message he wanted to send to the Canadian people and the rest of the world after Trump tear-gassed his own people just so he could have his photo taken outside of a church.

Pausing for around 20 seconds, Trudeau struggled to convey the words before eventually saying:

We all watch in horror and consternation what’s going on in the United States. It is a time to pull people together but it is a time to listen, to learn what injustices continue despite progress over the years and decades but it is a time for us, as Canadians to recognise that we too have our challenges.

That black Canadians and racialised Canadians face discrimination as a lived reality every single day. There is systemic discrimination in Canadian which means our systems treat Canadians of colour differently than they do others.

It is something that many of us don't see but it is something that is a lived reality for racialised Canadians. We need to see that, not just as a government and take action but we need to see that as Canadians.

We need to be allies in the fight against discrimination we need to listen, we need to learn and we need to learn how to fix and how we can be part of the solution on fixing things. This government has done a number of things of the past years but there is still more to do and we will continue to do that because we see you, we see the discrimination that racialised Canadians live every single day.

Trudeau's thoughtful response but equally powerful pause soon went viral with people using this as an example of Trump's actions perhaps going too far.

Trudeau has faced calls from within the Canadian parliament to address the problem with racism in his country with the NDP leader Jagmeet Singh urging him to do more about the issue.

Trudeau faced his own racism scandal last year when several photos emerged of him wearing blackface during his years as a student, something which he later apologised for and called 'dumb.'