A Canadian restaurant that fired a manager after he ejected a man wearing a MAGA hat has become the site of a social media battleground as pro- and anti-Trump forces use Yelp to either tar the establishment with one star reviews or provide five-star praise.
The incident has also revealed just how biased some Canadian reporting of Donald Trump and his supporters can be.
As the Vancouver Sun reports, the restaurant has been getting lots of attention from both factions. The Teahouse in Stanley Park fired employee Darin Hodge last Thursday after he asked a patron to leave the establishment because he would not remove his MAGA hat, something the Sun insists in a news story, “signals support not just for Donald Trump, but for his divisive and often racist policies.”
However, The Sequoia Company of Restaurants, which includes the Teahouse as one of its asserts, thought the restaurant was being divisive and has said in an emailed statement to the Sun that it “does not support intolerance of any kind” and “cannot discriminate against someone based on their support for the current administration in the United States or any other bona fide political party.”
Hodge insists he would do it again, saying on his Facebook page that “The MAGA hat has come to symbolize racism, bigotry, Islamophobia, misogyny, white supremacy, homophobia,” Hodge said. “As a person with a strong moral backbone, I had to take a stand against this guest’s choice of headgear…Absolutely no regrets.” (RELATED: Restaurant Manager Refuses To Serve Customer Wearing MAGA Hat — Is Promptly Fired)
Although Canadian media have been quick to report the host of bad reviews the restaurant has received for firing Hodge, the Sun is at least reporting that many Yelp contributors are supporting the Teahouse for its decision, although the paper editorialized in a news story that this is merely “another opportunity for disingenuous projection” from Trump supporters.
“Pathetic intolerance and bigotry,” posted Eric H. of Youngsville, North Carolina. “A naive manager that cannot decipher #fakenews from reality refuses to serve a patron because of a political hat. Horrible place of business.”