A Montreal Impact reservist is calling Montreal racist after problems with a city transit employee.
Soccer player Miguel Montano says in a pair of tweets on Wednesday that he was unable to buy a ticket to ride Montreal's metro system because he didn't speak French.
The Colombian-born soccer player alleges that when he tried to converse with a ticket taker in English, he was told that he needed to speak French and his money was returned to him.
"They are so racist in Montreal," he wrote Wednesday on Twitter, in Spanish. "They didn't want to sell me a ticket to let me in the metro because I don't speak French."
He later added that the ticket-taker told him: "'If you live in Montreal, you need to speak French.' I spoke to him in English and he said NO (in) French and he gave me back my cash."
Montano's claims have not been independently confirmed by anyone else.
The Montreal Transit Authority said it was unaware of the tweets or of any specific complaint filed over the alleged incident.
But, speaking generally, spokeswoman Marianne Rouette says there's a zero-tolerance policy for racism and transit employees know it.
She did add that the transit system is governed by the province's French Language Charter. That means no public employee is forced to speak any language other than French, although many employees happen to be bilingual or multilingual and can choose to speak other languages, she said.
The soccer player backpeddled several hours later, after the story appeared in local media.
Montano said he had experienced an unacceptable situation that made him very angry, and that's what prompted him to write his comment. He apologized if he offended anyone.
"Montreal is not a racist city," he added.
