A 22-year-old Richmond carpenter is eating his words after he was fired from his job for making comments in support of the Vancouver riot on his Facebook page.
Connor Mcilvenna says that he went downtown with some friends around 9:30 p.m. on Wednesday to watch the post-Stanley Cup riot, but didn't do anything illegal.
"I didn't do anything. I did nothing wrong. I was just there," he said.
He did, however, post several pro-riot status updates on his Facebook page, including statements like "atta boy vancity!!! show em how we do it!!!" and "vancouver needed remodeling anyway...."
Mcilvenna listed Rite Tech Construction on his profile as his employer, and the morning after the riot, he was called in by the boss and promptly fired.
"I have big regrets for making stupid comments I just shouldn't have made," he told CTV News after losing his job.
Rite Tech owner Justin Reitz says that Mcilvenna's thoughtless comments impacted his company's reputation.
"I just didn't feel like what was said was appropriate, and I didn't want any affiliation towards my company with the things he said on Facebook," Reitz said.
"I had over 100 emails and out of the 100 emails, close to 30 of them were copies of his Facebook page which he sent out during the riots."
Mcilvenna says he's apologized on Facebook in the meantime, but the lesson has been a hard one to learn.
"I didn't do anything. I was just there. I made stupid comments that I'm extremely regretful for, and people just took them the wrong way," he said.
With a report from CTV British Columbia' Norma Reid
