Restaurants boycott lobster over violence

HALIFAX (CP) — Kourosh Rad, owner of Garden Food Bar and Lounge in Halifax, says he removed his popular lobster-based menu items in support of the province’s Mi’kmaq fishers.

Rad is among a few restaurant owners in the province who have responded to the conflict by boycotting lobster.

“The lobster that we are selling is at the centre of the conflict that’s ongoing in Nova Scotia,” Rad said. “We felt like it’s a very small gesture that we can make in support and solidarity of stopping the violence that’s taking place right now.”

Rad said he faced some backlash after deciding on Oct. 17 to stop selling lobster, but said the response has been largely positive.

He said he never thought about who was harvesting the lobster he was serving his clients. But now, the owner said he’s looking to buy lobster from Indigenous fishers.

“We ask for local foods as much as possible but now we are asking the question, ‘where is the lobster from?’ Until we figure out the source, we’re not going put it back on the menu,” Rad said.

Matt Boyle, co-owner of Dear Friend bar in Dartmouth, N.S., removed lobster from his restaurant’s menu last month.

“We wanted to remove the lobster roll as a sign of our solidarity but to also ... expedite conversations of peace or just spread some more awareness,” Boyle said in an interview Monday.

But after he posted about the menu change on social media, the responses he received were less than peaceful.

“We had a lot of pretty aggressive forms of hate digitally,” which he said included angry direct messages to the restaurant’s social media accounts and to his personal account.

There was also a “targeted cyber bullying attack” in which people posted one-star reviews.