A manager at a Vancouver restaurant has been fired after refusing to serve a man wearing a baseball cap emblazoned with President Donald Trump's "Make America Great Again" slogan.
In an email to Global News Canada, fired manager Darin Hodge said the dispute had erupted when he asked a patron of Vancouver's Stanley Park Teahouse restaurant to remove his MAGA baseball cap.
"I stand by my decision to ask the patron to remove his hat. The MAGA hat has come to symbolize racism, bigotry, islamaphobia [sic], misogyny, white supremacy, homophobia. As a person with a strong moral backbone, I had to take a stand against this guest's choice of headwear while in my former place of work," he wrote.
There was controversy last week after the co-owner of the Red Hen restaurant in Lexington to refuse service to White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders. The decision led to debate about a breakdown of civility in American politics.
In recent weeks Trump has clashed with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau over trade policy and tariffs.
Eva Gates, Vice president of Human Resources for the Sequoia Group of Restaurants—which owns the Teahouse—defended the decision to sack Hodge in a statement to the outlet.
It described him as "a good person with a big heart and a right to his personal beliefs." However, it said he was fired for violating the company's "philosophy of tolerance."
"Sequoia does not support intolerance of any kind, and it is because of these principles that we cannot discriminate against someone based on their support for the current administration in the United States or any other bona fide political party," reads the statement.
It is not the first time those wearing clothing bearing the MAGA slogan, which critics associate with the president's anti-immigrant and anti-LGBT policies, have attracted ire.
On Wednesday, a Chicago bar announced it was banning MAGA hats in an effort to "keep it classy."
And last year north of the border, a Hamilton, Ontario, judge who wore a MAGA hat in court was suspended for 30 days.
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