Indigo drops company behind neighbourhood themed candles after racist texts
Candles by a Vancouver-based company have been blacklisted by retail giant Chapters Indigo after highly racist messages from its founder surfaced over the weekend.
Indigo has announced that it's removing all products from Vancouver Candle Co. after disturbing screenshots of old messages were shared by a local sales agency Warner McDaniel Agency.
On Sunday, the agency posted on Instagram a series of text interactions owners have had with Nick Rabuchin, who founded Vancouver Candle Co. in 2014 and has temporarily 'stepped away' from the business as of Tuesday.
The text message screenshots are disturbing, and include highly offensive, bigoted language from Rabuchin against Black and Jewish people.
In their post, Warner McDaniel co-owners Cindy Warner and Christina McDaniel, say that they have been dealing with threats and intimidation from Rabuchin for months.
"Racism is real and this is our story," they wrote. "Our business is woman-owned, and owned by a woman of colour. A proud black woman, born and raised in British Columbia. What we are sharing has left us speechless, heartbroken and silent."
"We chose to share our story not for sympathy. But to shed light on the reality that racism isn’t an American problem limited to police brutality. It is here in our backyards, our inboxes and our business community."
Vancouver Candle Co. put out an Instagram statement apologizing for "any hurtful, inappropriate or racial comments", though the company denies being responsible for the text in which the racial slur for Black people is used.
Over the past few days, a number of Vancouver companies have condemned the brand online.
And now Indigo has followed suit, while Nordstrom Canada recently responded to a comment on Instagram with the following:
"Nordstrom does not tolerate discrimination of any kind and this extends to our partners. We take this seriously and are looking into these claims - Lauren."
Today, Rabuchin released another Instagram apology, owning up to condoning the use of the racial slur and "a derogatory text about a fellow member of the Jewish community".
Rabuchin says that he will step away from the company and allow his partner and Vancouver Candle Co.'s co-owner, Farouk Babul, take the reigns.
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