Organizers with the Fête nationale du Québec à Montréal issued a second apology on Monday in an effort to explain how four people of colour ended up pushing a float in the event’s parade, in a display that social media users said reminded them of slavery.
The display was captured in a widely-circulated video that showed a float carrying singer Annie Villeneuve down Rue Saint-Denis as she was manually pushed by people who appeared to be visible minorities. The video had been viewed over 1.8 million times as of Monday night.
The video panned back and forth between the people pushing the float and a crowd of parade participants dressed in white, many of whom looked to be Caucasian.
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In a statement in French that was posted to Facebook, event organizers explained that the team that was in charge of recruiting people to push the float were looking for strong people who could do the job without injuring themselves. It says they wanted floats to be pushed manually in order to be more environmentally responsible.
An organizer knew the head of the sports team at École Louis-Joseph-Papineau, a high school.
The head of the team agreed to have some young athletes push the float — the only qualifying criteria for participants was that they be strong.
The statement went on to say that one of the float’s wheels was damaged and, as a result, the young men had to work harder to push it forward.
As for the costumes, it said they were meant to evoke characters from an ancient book that contained poetry.
Organizers affirmed that they never meant to display a racist image.
READ MORE: Fête nationale parade float draws social media backlash over racism
Nevertheless, they offered a “sincere apology” to anyone who was hurt by the display.
They also specifically addressed the black community, “for whom we have the greatest respect.”
Organizers had previously offered an apology for any distress that the display caused.
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