Canmore reinforces tolerance, values after business’ transphobic email

The Town of Canmore is reinforcing the community’s values of love and inclusivity after a local business, Valbella Gourmet Foods, faced backlash for a transphobic email to Pride organizers.

Canmore Mayor Sean Krausert says what happened was disappointing. He adds it shows that something needs to change.

“When something like this happens, it’s an opportunity to reinforce the values of the community — inclusivity, valuing every member of our community,” said Krausert.

He says the comments made by one of the owners of Valbella are sad and hurtful to everyone and don’t reflect the views of his town.

“Canmore really is a welcoming and accepting place, but just like everywhere, there will be those that have different opinions,” Krausert told CityNews.

“We need to talk about how differences and different ways of being enrich our community, and enrich all of us.”

He points out that what happened with Valbella was one person’s wrongdoing and does not necessarily represent all of the employees’ opinions.

Krausert adds locals have always supported the 2SLGBTQ+ community and says he looks forward to attending Canmore Pride.

READ MORE:

• Canmore company apologizes after homophobic email sent to Pride

• 2SLGBTQ+ harassment, slurs abound on social media, report says

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Valbella has come under fire in recent days after an email from Jeff von Rotz, who signed the correspondence as an owner, was widely shared on social media. In the email, he makes transphobic comments after Pride organizers reached out to ask for a donation for an upcoming event.

On Tuesday, the company took to Facebook to apologize and to say that the person responsible for the “intolerant” email had been “removed” from the company.

Research chair for the Public Understanding of Sexual and Gender Minority Youths at McEwan University, Dr. Kristopher Wells, says teaching about diversity should start at an early stage.

“When we are not teaching about diversity at early ages, people fear diversity and you often fear what you don’t know and that fear can often lead to attacks,” said Wells.

He says social media has helped amplify messages of hate across the world in recent years.

“That’s exactly what we see happening, you know in this kind of email, in this messaging, these harmful stereotypes,” he said, adding many of them are based on prejudice and discrimination.

Wells notes many in the 2SLGBTQ+ community have had to endure hate speech on social media.

However, he says the reaction and support from people in Canmore in the wake of the email has been a positive in this negative situation.

He adds it is important to show support for these communities and to get to know each other to reduce discrimination.

“Humanization is one of the best ways to remove prejudice,” Wells told CityNews.

-With files from Gaby Rios