The owner of Second Cup is shocked by videos in which a franchisee of his brand made the Nazi salute in addition to talking about “the final solution” at a demonstration in Montreal last week.
“It hurt me a lot and as a community, we should not accept these actions. I was shocked, honestly,” Peter Mammas, CEO of Foodtastic, which owns Second Cup, responded on Sunday in an interview with The Journal.
Photo MARTIN ALARIE
Mai Abdulhadi, franchisee of two Second Cup establishments located in the Jewish General Hospital of Montreal, has become famous for the wrong reasons on social networks in recent days.
During a demonstration pitting pro-Palestinians against pro-Israel people which took place last Thursday in downtown Montreal, it was she who was seen making remarks alluding to the Holocaust and the Nazis in several images which have circulated widely, according to the Second Cup brand.
“The final solution is coming to you. Do you know what the final solution is?” we hear the protester wearing a keffiyeh say in a video. Another footage shows her giving the Nazi salute to protesters.
“Zero tolerance”
On Saturday, Second Cup announced the closure of M’s cafesme Abdulhadi due to this event and his “zero tolerance towards hate speech”. The brand claims this violates its franchise agreement.
Mr. Mammas claims to have been informed of the existence of the videos around 2 p.m. on Saturday, while he was at the cinema.
“We watched the videos and then took steps to check if it was indeed a franchisee. […] We made the decision to withdraw the franchise.
Photo taken from the 2015 SECOND CUP ANNUAL REPORT
Peter Mammas says he has no problem if people connected to his company participate in protests, as long as they remain peaceful.
“We have Muslim and Jewish franchisees […]. We have employees from all over the world in our cafes. But when someone incites violence, we have a problem with that,” he said.
We were unable to contact Mai Abdulhadi on Sunday.
No complaint to the SPVM
“We fully support the decision of Second Cup to take rapid and decisive action in this matter by closing this franchisee’s cafes and terminating its lease agreement,” declared, for its part, the CIUSSS du Centre-Ouest-de-l’Île-de-Montréal, responsible for the Hospital.
The SPVM indicated on Sunday that it had still not received any complaints regarding these actions.
“This hate speech, this incitement to violence, this apology for the Shoah, this death threat, calls for a strong reaction from the authorities. We are awaiting prosecution,” the Advisory Center for Jewish and Israeli Relations (CIJA) demanded last Thursday on X.
– With TVA News
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