Anti-vaxxers 'boycotting' Chapman's ice cream
Anti-vaxxers are targeting Chapman's ice cream over the company's COVID-19 vaccination policy, threatening members of the family-owned business.
“In fact, I got a threatening package this morning from Druthers, saying 'the hundreds of employees you’ve fired,' now we’re going to come out with an article, and that will show you who’s boss,” says the vice-president of the family-run ice cream company, Ashley Chapman.
Druthers is an anti-vaccine, anti-COVID-19-restriction alternative "news" publication.
On Nov. 12, Chapman’s announced they’d be giving their fully-vaccinated employees a $1 per hour raise by month’s end. Disgruntled employees leaked the raise news to some anti-vaccine groups, who have in turn launched a boycott of Chapman’s products.
That came less than a week after, Chapman’s started twice-a-week rapid testing for about 100 of their 850 employees, who had decided against getting vaccinated. Five employees refused, and are currently on unpaid leave.
“The far-right anti-vaxxers have taken it up, as in, we’re horrible people, and we need to be taught a lesson,” says Chapman.
So far, Chapman says the boycott has not impacted sales of their ice cream treats at all. He calls the boycott “frustrating” since the company was trying to find a middle ground, by deciding against a vaccine mandate, as many other organizations and businesses have.
“We’re really trying hard to work with these people, but it can be tough at times, especially when you’re being boycotted for this. It seems a bit ridiculous,” he says.
A counter movement, #IStandwithChapmans, has gained a little momentum with supporters who are promising to buy even more ice cream in the coming months to support the Markdale, Ont.-based company.
“It’s been overwhelming on the other side of things, it’s just that the negative comments, they hurt. We’re trying to do good in everything we do, so this was somewhat unexpected,” he says.
The $1 per hour premium for fully-vaccinated Chapman’s employees takes effect Nov. 28. The unpaid leave for the five employees who refused rapid testing started Monday.
In March 2020, the ice cream company announced a "pandemic pay boost," giving employee a $2 per hour pay increase. The wage increase became permanent later that year.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
Parents of infant who died in wrong-way crash on Ontario's Hwy. 401 were in same vehicle
Ontario’s Special Investigations Unit has released new details about a wrong-way collision in Whitby on Monday night that claimed the lives of four people.
Three Quebec men from same family father hundreds of children
Three men in Quebec from the same family have fathered more than 600 children.
Jurors in Trump hush money trial hear recording of pivotal call on plan to buy affair story
Jurors in the hush money trial of Donald Trump heard a recording Thursday of him discussing with his then-lawyer and personal fixer a plan to purchase the silence of a Playboy model who has said she had an affair with the former president.
B.C. mayor stripped of budget, barred from committees over Indigenous residential schools book
A British Columbia mayor has been censured by city council – stripping him of his travel and lobbying budgets and removing him from city committees – for allegedly distributing a book that questions the history of Indigenous residential schools in Canada.
Captain sentenced to 4 years for criminal negligence in fiery deaths of 34 aboard scuba boat
A federal judge on Thursday sentenced a scuba dive boat captain to four years in custody and three years supervised release for criminal negligence after 34 people died in a fire aboard the vessel.
New scam targets Canada Carbon Rebate recipients
Fake text message and email campaigns trying to get money and information out of unsuspecting Canadian taxpayers have started circulating, just months after the federal government rebranded the carbon tax rebate the Canada Carbon Rebate.
Southern Alberta store broken into by burly black bear
Staff at a small southern Alberta office supply store were shocked to find someone had broken into the business last week, but they were even more confused when they discovered the culprit was a bear.
President Joe Biden calls Japan and India 'xenophobic' nations that do not welcome immigrants
President Joe Biden has called Japan and India “xenophobic” countries that do not welcome immigrants, lumping the two with adversaries China and Russia as he tried to explain their economic circumstances and contrasted the four with the U.S. on immigration.
Universities grapple with the complicated politics of campus encampments
Montreal police are facing pressure to move in and dismantle a pro-Palestinian encampment on McGill University campus on Thursday, as a growing number of universities across this country grapple with the tough decision of how to handle the protests.