Global Courant
People are vowing to boycott Ben & Jerry’s ice cream after the company marked Canada Day by tweeting about “our home on stolen land.”
On Saturday the iconic American ice machine tweeted a call to actionwith a link to an online petition, calling on Parliament to “disband C-IRG today!”
“One more day to talk about #LandBack and how we can support communities defending their land. Take action on Canada Day,” the company tweeted with a link to a form.
The form is a pre-formulated letter to the federal government demands the dissolution of RCMP’s controversial Community-Industry Response Group (C-IRG). The task force has been criticized for its tactics and has been accused of human rights violations, civil liberties and racist and violent attacks against indigenous peoples, journalists and protesters in British Columbia.
“British Columbia’s use of a police force to protect pipelines and logging projects and suppress freedom of expression represents a grave failure to address the climate crisis and protect Indigenous rights,” reads the petition on the UN’s website. ice cream company. “I join many others who are calling for the disbandment of this new police unit.”
Some social media users have vowed to boycott Ben & Jerry’s for “politicising ice cream”.
“I prefer non-political ice cream, so I’ll pass Ben & Jerry’s hard,” reads a comment.
“The action I intend to take is to never buy your product again. Disgusting,” reads another.
Some pointed out that the ice machine itself sits on stolen land.
“I don’t want to point out the obvious, but many indigenous people are lactose intolerant. Your product gives us the (poo). I will send my address where you can send our royalties, since you are also on stolen land is located, ” reads a tweet.
“Sure, you go first. #LandBack,” reads another.
CTV News has reached out to Ben & Jerry’s Canadian parent company, Unilever, for comment on the Canada Day tweet, but has not yet received a response.
In the US, the Vermont-based company issued a similar statement on Tuesday to mark US Independence Day.
“The United States was founded on stolen Indigenous land. Let’s commit on July 4 to return it,” reads the tweet.
The company suggested on its website that Mount Rushmore would be a good starting point before we outline the history behind the iconic site.
Ah, the 4th of July. Who doesn’t love a good parade, a tasty barbecue, and a rousing fireworks display? The only problem with all of that, though, is that it can distract from an essential truth about the birth of this nation: The U.S. was founded on stolen native land,” reads the message on the US website. “Let’s commit to giving it back this year.”
