He Wore That Shirt—Then Air Canada Kicked Him Off the Plane
A 62-year-old man from Nova Scotia says he was removed from an Air Canada flight simply because of the shirt he was wearing — and now the story is going viral.
Daniel Greaves boarded a flight from Edmonton to Vancouver on July 8 wearing a shirt that showed a now-infamous image of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in blackface. Before the plane even took off, flight attendants approached him and said the shirt was offensive. Minutes later, he was told he wouldn’t be flying that day.
Greaves says the decision shocked him. “There was no warning, no conversation. They just said, ‘You can’t wear that.’ I didn’t yell. I didn’t argue. I just left.”
The shirt had apparently gone unnoticed on other flights, but this time, cabin crew weren’t having it. Greaves insists he meant it as satire, not hate, and claims no passengers around him appeared offended. Still, the airline exercised its right to remove a passenger who could “cause discomfort or disruption.”
The incident reignited debate across the country. Supporters of Greaves are calling it an attack on free speech. Critics say the blackface image, regardless of context, remains deeply inappropriate in public settings—especially inside a confined space like an airplane.
Air Canada has not commented publicly on the removal. Greaves, meanwhile, says he has no regrets.
“I wore the shirt to make a point. If that offends people, maybe they should ask why that image exists in the first place.”
The Trudeau blackface controversy first exploded in 2019 when multiple photos emerged of the Prime Minister in dark makeup at costume events. Trudeau later apologized, calling the incidents racist and unacceptable.
This latest episode shows that nearly six years later, the scandal still hasn’t lost its power to divide.
