MONTREAL - Administrators at HEC Montreal are apologizing after dozens of new students wore blackface makeup at a frosh week initiation event.
Jacques Nantel, the Secretary-General for Haute études commerciales, the business school affiliated with the Université de Montreal, said there is no question that having dozens of new students wear black makeup and parading around a stadium is a racist act.
"That certainly would be racism. As far as I'm concerned that's totally, totally inexcusable," said Nantel.
"The thing is very serious," and students who took part in the supposed tribute to Jamaican athlete Usain Bolt could be punished by the school.
"It's really not a matter of intent. If the whole thing offended only one person, that's enough," said Nantel.
The new business school students were caught in the act by McGill law student Anthony Morgan, who happened to be on the campus at the time.
He said that as he filmed the event one student yelled "we have a real black person here."
Morgan, who is considering filing a human rights complaint, said "I was absolutely horrified."
Nantel agrees that what the students did was wrong, even if that was not their intention.
"Basically those are 19-year-old students," said Nantel. "It is an occasion for us to not only rethink our procedures and our process but also the values we want to convey."
Nantel pointed out that while HEC has students from dozens of countries, the majority of its students come from Quebec, often from rural areas with very little ethnic diversity.
"It's not an excuse for any stupid move."
While HEC is affiliated with the Université de Montreal, the schools have separate administrations. The HEC student group had to rent the football stadium from the university.
HEC is considered among the oldest and most prestigious business schools in Canada.
The higher education company QS ranked it 22nd among 200 North American business schools in 2010, ahead of McGill, the University of British Columbia and Cornell.
