TORONTO — Employees of international supermarket chain Whole Foods have been told not to wear Remembrance Day poppies because they don’t align with the company dress code.
“All the team members must comply with our long-standing company dress code, which prohibits clothing with visible slogans, messages, logos or advertising that are not company-related,” a spokesperson confirmed to CP24 on the Whole Foods hotline.
Canadian politicians spoke out online against the company policy Friday morning, calling it “shameful and wrong.”
“The poppy is not a cause, it is a sign of respect,” Conservative Leader Erin O’Toole tweeted. “The sacrifice of Canadians in the past provides the freedom for a US grocery chain to be stupid today … Let’s tell Whole Foods to stop trying to be Woke Foods.”
The new controversy follows another flashpoint around Whole Food uniforms earlier this year, when U.S. staff filed a federal lawsuit against their employer after they were told they couldn’t wear “Black Lives Matter” face coverings at work.
At the time, store managers also cited the same company dress code language, which forbids symbols and phrases not affiliated with Whole Foods.
“It was wrong when they banned staff expressing support for Black Lives Matter and it’s wrong to ban the Poppy,” wrote NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh on Twitter. “Canadians shouldn’t lose the right to honour the sacrifices of veterans when they go to work.”
Ontario Premier Doug Ford also tweeted about the dress code policy, calling it “disgusting and disgraceful.”
“We will always stand with our veterans. Whole Foods should apologize and immediately reverse this decision,” he wrote.
The poppy has long been a symbol of peace used to honour the memory of fallen soldiers from the First and Second World Wars, most often associated with a poem written in 1915 by Canadian physician Lt.-Col. John McCrae.
