Hours after Ontario Premier Doug Ford announced that the province will be introducing legislation preventing any employer from prohibiting the wearing of poppies, Lawrence MacAulay, Canada’s Vetereans Minister, said Whole Foods has reversed its ban on wearing poppies in the workplace.
“Just spoke to the chief operating officer of Whole Foods. Employees will now be able to wear their poppies at work,” said Veterans Minister Lawrence MacAulay in a tweet Friday afternoon.
“The poppy represents those who’ve served, fought, and died for Canada, and it’s deeply personal to everyone here. Glad to hear they’re changing course,” said MacCauley.
The Amazon-owned upscale grocery chain initially had made a controversial uniform policy decision prohibiting employees from wearing poppies while on the job. This decision caught the interest of many people including Ontario Premier Doug Ford, who called it “disgraceful and sidgusting’” after learning that an Ottawa Whole Foods told its employees they were not allowed to wear poppies on their store uniforms.
The U.S. owned grocery chain with 14 locations in Canada including six in the GTA, also received criticism from Canada’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. When asked at Friday’s press conference if Canada would also consider making it illegal to ban the wearing of poppies in the workplace Trudeau said the grocery chain was making a “silly mistake that I’m hoping they will correct very quickly.”
“This is something that we see every year almost some company makes a mistake around support for the legion wearing the poppy and it’s quickly corrected by public outcry. That is something I hope will happen over the coming days,” said Trudeau.
Members of Parliament also condemned the initial policy decision by Whole Foods.
Conservative Leader Erin O’Toole, himself a former Royal Canadian Air Force officer, also spoke out against Whole Foods.
“The freedom (Whole Foods) has to be that stupid was granted by the sacrifice of thousands of Canadians and that’s why we show respect for the poppy,” he said. “So I’d like Whole Foods to stop trying to be Woke Foods and do the right thing, show some respect, lest we forget.”
Well, the wait was not very long as Whole Foods later released a statement saying: “Our intention was never to single out the poppy or to suggest a lack of support for Remembrance Day and the heroes who have bravely served their country.”
“Given the learnings of today, we are welcoming team members to wear the poppy pin.”
Whole Foods also has said it is supporting the Royal Canadian Legion by donating more than $8,000 to the poppy campaign. It also said employees at all of its stores will observe the traditional moment of silence at 11 a.m. on Nov. 11.
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