Sticker covering label on Palestinian wine bottle at LCBO 'offensive,' says Palestinian Canadian man
CBC
Samer Abdelnour was visiting his family in Toronto when he decided to take out a bottle of wine he had ordered online and had delivered to them as a gift.
When he grabbed the bottle, he noticed a plain white sticker placed on top of the front label. Confused, he peeled it back to find the words "of Palestine" written underneath.
The 2019 bottle of red wine, ordered for home delivery via the LCBO's website, was produced by Taybeh Winery, which is located in the Israeli-occupied West Bank village of Taybeh, north of Jerusalem.
Abdelnour is a Palestinian Canadian, though he has lived in Europe for nearly 12 years. He works as an associate professor at the University of Edinburgh Business School. He also co-founded Al-Shabaka, a leading Palestinian think-tank.
Abdelnour had placed the online order on March 16, ahead of a planned visit to Canada in April.
When his family received the order, they unboxed the beer and wine and set them aside. This past Sunday, he said, they decided to take the wine out to have with dinner, when he spotted the label.
"That's when I thought, 'OK, what's this covering up?'" Abdelnour said. "I peeled it off and saw the 'of Palestine' underneath."
Abdelnour said seeing the word "Palestine" covered up on the bottle was "upsetting" and he took to Twitter to ask the LCBO why the sticker was placed there.
"As a Canadian, as a Palestinian, as a consumer, I mean, this is just — it's ridiculous, it's offensive and probably illegal," he said, noting it was the first time he had ordered Taybeh wine through the LCBO.
"It really reflects a deep settler-colonial insecurity when even mentioning Palestine is deemed a threat."
The LCBO said labelling on its products complies with the provincial and federal laws and guidelines outlined by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA), which enforces food-labelling requirements in Canada.
According to the LCBO, Taybeh wines produced since 2020 and sold at LCBO are labelled as originating from the "West Bank." However, bottles produced prior to 2020 used a sticker as an "interim solution," the LCBO said.
"Suppliers are required to meet the labelling requirements for packaged food and beverage alcohol products sold in Canada as set out by the CFIA," an LCBO spokesperson said.
"In some cases, when labels do not meet regulatory requirements, suppliers are given the opportunity to modify labels to meet requirements."
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