Video of Quebec history float goes viral amid allegations of racism

A float in Montreal's Ftenationale parade Saturday quickly prompted widespread rebuke online with some attendees calling it racist.

The float went along St-Denis Street carryingsinger Annie Villeneuve anda pianist, along with a billboardthat said"Once upon a time"in French.

It was pushed by four black teens wearing tan-coloured clothes with dozens of white people followingin white clothes.

A video of it was posted to Facebook around 2 p.m. ET and within three hours it had been shared more than 6,000 times.

The caption on the post says:"I'm not surethe organizers understand the concept of diversity."

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Organizers call race divisionrandom occurrence

The president of the organizing committeefor the Montreal celebration,MaximeLaporte,said the float was being pushed by students from a local high school, Louis-Joseph-Papineau.

"We have people of all origins, Asian, African, from everywhere in the world who are Quebecers and participated in the parade," Laporte told Radio-Canada.

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He went on to say they had partnered with theschool's scholastic perseverance program and through itstudents volunteered to help in the day's events.

He said the reason they were labouring over the float is because the parade is eco-friendly, meaning all the floats are pushed by people.

He added it's completely random that black students were pushing the history float.

"I understand there's a controversy. I'd like to ask for calm," Laporte said.

Local high school eager to help

The students' coach, SterveLubin, saidthe school was eager to participate in the parade.

"I think it's a shame that people saw a colour and not the participants,"Lubinsaid.

"It was a pleasure for us to be there. If wedidn't want to be there, wewouldn't have been there."

Laporteadded that organizers are doing everything to reflect diversity in how they plan the Ftenationaleevents.

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