Ontario’s liquor body, the LCBO, has denied that Wayne Gretzsky’s wine labels had been tampered with in a Toronto store as the NHL legend faces backlash over his unwavering support for President Donald Trump.
Gretzky, 64, who was pictured at Trump’s inauguration in January and was spotted wearing a MAGA cap at his election night party last year, has remained silent despite the president's on-and-off-again trade war and repeated calls to make the country the 51st U.S. state.
Fans of the Great One have taken to social media to share their disdain and have even started a petition to rename Wayne Gretzky Drive in Edmonton – which garnered more than 13,300 signatures by Thursday.
The president in turn rushed to Gretzksy’s defense and called him a “fantastic guy” in a Truth Social post late last month.
Now, pictures have circulated on Reddit appearing to show that Gretzky’s wine range has been targeted in at least one liquor store in Toronto.
The viral pictures show altered descriptions under bottles of Wayne Gretzky Estates pinot grigio and cabernet merlot.
“Weak & backstabery,” reads the placard under the pinot grigio, which allegedly “delights with notes of elitism, and affluence. Terry Fox would not have used this swill to put out a fire.”
While the cabernet merlot label claims that the “sad & two-faced” wine is “weak as its namesake's moral fiber,” and should be paired with “boiled raccoon.”
The tags both boast that the wine is made in the U.S. despite the winery being based in Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario. LCBO removed U.S. brands from its shelves last week in a stance against Trump’s new tariffs.
The photographs were removed by Reddit moderators on Tuesday due to the original poster “not providing a source for the image... to combat false information.”
An LCBO spokesperson swiftly cast doubt over the authenticity of the images and told local news outlet blogTO that “these may be photoshopped.”
“At this time, we have found no evidence to suggest that any product label was altered in our stores,” they added.
blogTO visited the store on Wednesday and found no evidence of the tags posted in the Reddit thread.
A staff member on-site told the outlet that they had not heard of the labels being swapped. The store manager declined to comment.
The Independent has contacted LCBO and Wayne Gretzky Estates for more information.
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