Canadian Restaurant Destroyed On Yelp After MAGA Hat Incident

Trump-hating Canadians flooded the Yelp page of a restaurant with one-star reviews after a manager was fired for ejecting a man wearing a “Make America Great Again” (MAGA) hat, reports The Hill.

Canada’s NBC News reported that former manager Darren Hodge, who had worked at the Teahouse in Vancouver’s Stanley Park for 18 months, told the customer that he would not be served unless he removed his MAGA hat.

“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. Absolutely no regrets,” the former employee told CBC News.

The restaurant owners, meanwhile, say that the manager was fired because their actions “did not align with their policy of hospitality and inclusiveness.”

“[He] was aware what he was doing was probably contrary to our values and our philosophy as a company,” said the restaurant’s general manager. 

Angry Canadians were having none of it. A few of the one-star reviews: 

• “Fired a manager for taking a stand against bigotry and white supremacy. Unbelievable!”

• “wearing a MAGA hat these days is the same thing as wearing a black swazstika arm band.“

• I have enjoyed the Teahouse in the past. Recently the Teahouse fired a manager for refusing to serve an American tourist who was wearing a Make America Great Again. I support that manager 100%. He was right in refusing to serve someone wearing an offensive hat that has become symbol of racism and is very offensive to Canadians.

Oddly, Yelp hasn’t removed the politicized reviews as they often do in similar situations.

The MAGA hat, at this point, might as well be a swastika. If @The_Teahouse is good with that type of customer, well, enjoy em I guess. https://t.co/vE4PVdZdes

— Andray (@andraydomise) June 30, 2018

The “damned if you do, damned if you don’t” situation the Treehouse finds itself in follows an incident at a Virginia restaurant last week in which the owner of the Red Hen kicked out White House press secretary Sarah Sanders. 

In that instance, Trump supporters flooded the Red Hen website with one-star reviews – which Yelp, in a statement, told the Red Hen it was actively working to remove.

We wonder if the Treehouse will receive the same support?