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B.C. forklift driver fired after racist comments about Canada Day tragedy

Man had laughed online at death of man who fell from back of vehicle at Abbotsford parade
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Investigators were on the scene in Abbotsford on Sunday afternoon after an elderly man died when he fell off the back of a truck that had participated in the Canada Day parade. (John Morrow/Abbotsford News)

A Mission man has been fired from his job after posting a racist comment on Facebook about the death of a man who fell from a truck following Sunday’s Canada Day parade in Abbotsford.

Dillon Mazzei’s post – which included laughing emoticons, slurs and a wish that more people had been injured – was widely shared and condemned Monday.

RELATED: Elderly man dies after falling out of pickup truck following Canada Day parade

Mazzei’s Facebook page also included the detail that he worked as a fork-lift driver at Terralink Horticulture. By the next morning, the company had disavowed the comments and fired the man who made them.

“TerraLink is strongly opposed to the racist and hateful comments expressed yesterday on Facebook,” the company’s president and CEO Stan Loewen wrote on Facebook. The individual does not represent our company and did this on his own initiative without our knowledge. We completely disavow his views and his employment with TerraLink was immediately terminated today.

“We are publicly stating that TerraLink’s values are for inclusiveness of all people who make up the fabric of society. Given the nature of the comments, we particularly wish to inform the Indo-Canadian community that we are supportive of them. We stand with the Indo-Canadian community who are our friends and business colleagues. Together we mourn the loss of Sohan Singh Sidhu who tragically died in the accident following the Canada Day parade.

“For more than four decades the ownership of TerraLink, its management and staff have promoted equality and equal rights for all. We urge others to do so to help remove hate and discrimination from all walks of life. We are multiethnic, multicultural and multigenerational. We consciously work towards fairness and goodwill towards all people and will continue to do so.

“We express our deep condolences to the grieved family.”

Mazzei’s Facebook page has now been deleted.