A Maple Ridge restaurant that catered an event for B.C. Premier Christy Clark says it was on the receiving end of "harsh" criticism from anti-government protesters — and later found one of its windows smashed.
Big Feast Bistro & Catering described the the hostility they received when delivering food to a lunch that Clark was speaking at on Wednesday in a Facebook post:
We had a tough delivery yesterday to a lunch where Christie [sic] Clark was speaking at the Act but had no idea she was there until we delivered. There were no kind words for us even with my 12 year old son helping with the delivery, several harsh things were said to us.
That night, one of the restaurant's windows was kicked in, but the business said it hopes the two incidents are not related.
A noisy crowd of more than 200 teachers, parents and students greeted Clark who was in Maple Ridge to celebrate the district officially becoming a city, reported the Maple Ridge Pitt Meadows Times. The protesters want to see an end to the months-long teachers' strike.
Clark entered the ACT Theatre through the back to avoid most of the crowd in the front, reported Global News.
"We want the strike over as much as everyone and hope there are no hard feelings towards us for doing what we do best, feeding Maple Ridge. We will be open for business today as normal and hope this all gets resolved quickly," continued the Facebook post.
Chrissy Bynuck commented on Big Feast's post and said "There were many people who I felt were not behaving well at this event. Great turnout and good to voice your opinion but some bad behaviour for sure."
Another commenter named Arby Trayshon, who appears to be a B.C. teacher, wrote that she was at the event "and was right up front when you arrived to let security know you'd be unloading lunch. Initially, I was surprised that Big Feast, one of my fave restaurants, was providing lunch but I immediately realized that a) you probably had no idea who you were delivering to and b) you are a small business doing your job.
"I'm going to stop in and grab some lunch to bring with me to the picket line today and encourage my colleagues to come in and show their support. Emotions were running high yesterday but it's never excusable to treat people with such a lack of dignity."
On Wednesday the teachers' union voted overwhelmingly in favour of ending their strike through binding arbitration, but B.C. Education Minister Peter Fassbender stood by his previous statement that the "best way to resolve this labour dispute remains at the negotiating table."
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