The photograph shows the prime minister wearing a turban, robes and with his hands, neck and face covered in dark makeup. Others at the event seen in different costumes in different photographs did not appear to have darkened their skin with makeup, Time reported.
Conservative Party leader Andrew Scheer, whose party holds the second-highest number of seats in the House of Common, gave a brief on-camera statement, saying Trudeau "was not fit to govern."
"Like all Canadians, I was extremely shocked and disappointed when I learned of Justin Trudeau's actions this evening," Scheer said. "Wearing brownface is an act of open mockery and racism. It was just as racist in 2001 as it is in 2019.
Other politicians have had similarly regretful photographs surface recently.
(MORE: Va. governor mulled resignation before changing mind amid yearbook scandal: Sources) Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey apologized earlier this year for wearing blackface while doing a skit while at Auburn University.
Likewise, Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam refused to resign after first apologizing for, and then denying he was in, a 1984 yearbook photo depicting one man in blackface and another wearing a Ku Klux Klan hood.
Shama Rangwala, a faculty lecturer at the University of Alberta, said that Trudeau is now facing similar backlash.
"Canadians like to be pretty smug about being nice, and everybody gets along, and Canadians like to differentiate themselves from the U.S.," Rangwala told ABC News' "Start Here" podcast. "So when this Ralph Northam [news] came out, of course Canadians were all like, ‘Nothing like that would ever happen here.’ And now it's this huge, huge scandal here. I think that Canadian Liberals who have this, you know, mythologized, idealized version of Canada are really feeling their world shaken by this."
Trudeau, 47, already was facing a tough campaign after Canada's ethics commissioner said in August that he had improperly pressured then-Attorney General Jody Wilson-Raybould to halt the criminal prosecution of the engineering company SNC-Lavalin, a major employer in Quebec, according to The Associated Press.
"The prime minister, directly and through his senior officials, used various means to exert influence over Ms. Wilson-Raybould," Mario Dion, the ethics commissioner, wrote at the time. "The authority of the prime minister and his office was used to circumvent, undermine and ultimately attempt to discredit the decision of the director of public prosecutions as well as the authority of Ms. Wilson-Raybould."
ABC News' Brad Mielke contributed to this report.
Kaynak:Abcnews