Dear Editor:
The Liquor Control Board of Ontario (LCBO) is selling a beer produced by Nickel Brook Brewery labeled “Bolshevik Bastard,” (Product #406348). Aside from the label being adorned with a Communist hammer and sickle, which for millions of people represents oppression, persecution and even genocide, the label is even more offensive for sporting an image of Stalin, a mass murderer.
While I do not disagree he was both a “Bolshevik” and a “bastard,” I find it very offensive, indeed hateful, to find myself in an Ontario government store where I am confronted by the visage of this villain. I cannot imagine that the LCBO would ever allow for Hitler’s image or the Nazi swastika (“Adolf’s Ale?”) to be displayed on any product stocked or sold from any of its stores.
In short, this is an utterly unacceptable form of marketing, not only insensitive to the suffering of millions of people who made Canada their home after fleeing Stalinist tyranny but hateful to the memory of those who perished.
Let’s get this product removed immediately from every LCBO store across the province. It shouldn’t be restocked until the brewery removes this completely repulsive label, both the Stalin image and the Soviet hammer and sickle. Neither is “funny” and no such imagery should ever have been tolerated in an Ontario government store.
Join the protest. Send your e-mails directly to these LCBO officials: [email protected] and [email protected].
Kingston, Ontario