Mississauga restaurant apologizes to woman who received “inexcusable remarks” on social media
Published July 13, 2021 at 9:00 pm
The operators of a popular fried chicken restaurant have apologized to a local woman after someone posting on a social media account connected with the restaurant’s Mississauga location made an insulting comment about the woman’s appearance.
On July 12, Laiba Zaid, a personal trainer and fitness and beauty blogger, took to social media to share an exchange she had with an individual posting to an Instagram page associated with The Dirty Bird’s Mississauga location.
The Dirty Bird, which specializes in chicken and waffles, operates four restaurants in Toronto and Mississauga.
“You tried your maximum to be white look but brutally failed and spoiled the natural appearance now age factors as time out and at this time only second marriage man could be showed interest in you?”, a post directed at Zaid read.
The post came from @thedirtybirdsauga account, which appears to have since been deleted.
Zaid, who posts under the handle @bodmonzaid, said she received the insulting response because she didn’t visit the restaurant after being invited on social media.
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“@thedirtybirdsauga, your misogyny is showing,” Zaid wrote in an Instagram story.
“You’re salty we didn’t come to your restaurant.”
The operators behind the Dirty Bird’s official Instagram account responded to the controversy, saying that the account that insulted Zaid is run by a franchisee and not officially associated with the Toronto-based restaurant chain.
“@Dirtybird Sauga is not an approved account nor do we have control over the account,” the restaurant wrote.
“We are deeply saddened, disgusted and shocked by the comments and will be launching a full investigation. Our apologies. There is no room in this world for this kind of behaviour.”
After The Dirty Bird officially responded, Zaid posted a video to Instagram saying that the post was not enough, arguing that the account that insulted her was still connected to the company as an official franchisee.
“They’re still an authorized franchisee. They have the same link in their bio as the other Toronto location and they were still associated with each other so simply deleting the account and saying they have no control over the account doesn’t really do anything because you guys are still franchisees together and you guys are still doing business together and your franchise is out here harassing other people on social media,” Zaid said.
“So deleting the account, unfortunately, and sending a DM saying ‘sorry, this account wasn’t authorized by us’ doesn’t really do anything.”
On July 13, the operators of The Dirty Bird’s Mississauga location also apologized for the remarks, saying the offensive message was written by the franchisee’s father.
“We made a grave mistake. My father wrote inexcusable remarks towards Laiba, (@bodmonzaid),” wrote a man who identified himself as Fahad.
“We are truly sorry for our remarks and realize that our words are hurtful and have no place in society. We need to better ourselves and we realize that our thinking is primitive and harmful. We will be addressing these issues with the help of registered professionals. We will get advice from the professionals on what steps we need to take to make this right by everyone we have offended and better ourselves in the process.”
“My father will no longer have anything to do with The Dirty Bird,” Fahad continued.
“Laiba, We are truly sorry for our comments and remarks. We hope to be able to atone for our mistakes and make things right towards you.”
The official Dirty Bird account also announced that it’s working with the Mississauga franchise to address the issue.
“We have been working with the franchisee to address this issue. It is our responsibility to make sure all our franchisees condone themselves within the vision of The Dirty Bird. We believe in inclusion, kindness, fairness towards all. We apologize for not being ahead of the situation and we will do everything to make it right,” the restaurant wrote on Instagram.
Zaid praised the Toronto operators for their cooperation and profuse apologies but said the Mississauga location needs to do more to rectify the issue beyond posting an apology on Google.
“The Mississauga location needs to take their own accountability…I do accept the apology from the Toronto location.”
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