Ontario brewery receives onslaught of online hate after hosting Justin Trudeau

The Brewer’s Pantry has been at the centre of political threats and hate since last week.

The storm came almost immediately after hosting Prime Minister Justin Trudeau at local Liberal MP federal byelection candidate Robert Rock’s private campaign event on Thursday evening in Bowmanville, Ont. After word spread on local Facebook groups that the prime minister was at the event, they were inundated with messages of hate.

“The phone was just blowing right up there, like you guys saw the worst: ‘You’re going to go bankrupt.’ ‘We can’t wait for you to go out of business.’ ‘We’re never going to step foot in your place,’ ‘We’re telling all your friends, you’re cancelled, you’re horrible.’ ‘I wish somebody had burned down your building,’” said owner Chris Aucoin.

“I was not ready for that. I am not a hateful man. I love everyone that comes in here. I consider them friends. I was not ready for this,” he told Global News in an interview.

Receiving hate locally and nationally, Aucoin said it’s been a difficult few days. He said he’s been getting calls by the minute.

“B.C., Victoria, all the way to Newfoundland. Lots from Alberta. Lots from Chicago. Lots from the ‘States,” said Aucoin.

When Rock asked Aucoin to host the event at the brewery, Aucoin thought it would be a great way to make business during the week. “I said, if he wants to bring that many people to a spot on a Wednesday or Thursday night, by all means, let’s host it,” he said.

“It was only a few days before that he secretly told me there was going to be a VIP coming, so it was only a couple of days that I knew it was the prime minister,” said Aucoin.

While he said he expected good-natured ribbing and negative comments, the vitriol is at a level he never expected. “Everybody’s entitled to their opinion. I’m not trying to promote any politicians or anything. I’m very non-political,” said Aucoin.

On social media, the brewery has since had to turn off comments due to the overflow of threats and hate. “I am not political. I am not a politician. I do not have thick skin. These are comments about my business that I am passionate about and very proud of. Your comments and abusive phone calls hurt me. Your attempts to bring down my Google reviews hurt my reputation,” reads a statement from the pantry.

Robert Rock told Global News in an interview that the location of the event had no political agenda. “I’m a big craft beer fan and I just really like the pantry,” said Rock. “I really wanted to support someone local, a place I love I personally enjoy going to and wanted to introduce more people to that location.” Known for its music, live events and parties, it’s a congregating spot in the small town.

From Rocks’ perspective, he said, it was about bringing business to a local brewery, as opposed to renting out a big restaurant. “For Chris this had nothing to do with politics at all, this had to deal with business owner having a private event,” said Rock, later posting a video to social media calling out the hate and said that small business owners shouldn’t be penalized for business decisions.”

Rock said he expected to get some hate and expects it to be a politician or person who wants to be a member of Parliament. “I can take the online hate,” said Rock. “But I wasn’t fine with someone, an innocent bystander, like the pantry, getting caught in that backlash.”

Ryan Turnbull, MP for Whitby, Ont., was also at the event and released a statement condemning the behaviour.

But amid all the hatred and negativity, there has been one thing that has kept Chris Aucoin going: the overwhelming amount of community love and support, especially on Saturday.

“There was people lined up, but there were people lined up to hug me, to support me, to clean out almost all of our beer. Out of the fridges. We have 350 types of craft beer in our fridges, and they were almost gone by Saturday afternoon,” said Aucoin, adding that they had record sales on Saturday. He’s also had support from his family, friends and regular customers.

Positive comments have appeared to contrast the negative ones, with the community rallying in support. Aucoin said he’s going to work on shifting his focus onto the positives and is ready to have new customers feel like family.

“If you think, ‘Wow, that guy was stupid for having the prime minister in here, we hate him’, and you come in, we’re going to love you,” said Aucoin.

“We’ll drink beer. We’ll talk about craft beer.”