EDMONTON–The Hudson’s Bay Company’s “Make Canada Great Again” hats have met an unlikely foe in Alberta right-wing media personality Ezra Levant.

The controversial items were spotted by shoppers at Vancouver’s Pacific Centre mall last weekend, weeks after the company had pledged to pull them off shelves.

A Twitter user by the name Juggy Sihota-Chahil posted a photo of the hats and toques, bearing a phrase that plays off of United States President Donald Trump’s campaign slogan “Make America Great Again,” last Saturday.

Some Twitter users commented on the tweet — which has since been deleted — saying they would stop shopping at the department store because of the merchandise.

Levant, who has expressed support for Trump, reposted the photo on Twitter and wrote, “I, too, am outraged. Because I own the trademark and had sent them a cease and desist letter.”

Records show Levant’s Rebel News Network trademarked the phrase “Make Canada Great Again” on Nov. 24, 2016, just weeks after Trump was elected.

The phrase is trademarked for various goods including bumper stickers, pens, sling bags, mugs, t-shirts, hats and signs made of paper, cardboard and poly vinyl chloride.

Levant confirmed in an email to StarMetro that the Rebel’s lawyers sent Hudson’s Bay a cease-and-desist letter “fairly recently” and have not heard back.

“We’re flattered that Hudson’s Bay thinks we have a good idea,” Levant wrote.

Rebel Media is known for posting inflammatory opinion-based news articles and videos with pro-oil and anti-immigrant sentiments. Levant frequently launches boycotts, websites and online fundraisers trumpeting right-wing causes. White supremacist Faith Goldy was a star Rebel personality before Levant fired her last year for appearing on neo-Nazi podcast The Daily Stormer.

Levant added in the email that he thinks “severely normal” Canadians are frustrated with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and the country’s “political-media status quo.”

“I read the sneering tweets attacking Hudson’s Bay for daring to sell something to the deplorables, and I thought: ‘They sound just as arrogant and insulting as Hillary Clinton’s campaign,’” he wrote.

The director of corporate communications for HBC, Tiffany Bourré, said in an email to StarMetro on Tuesday that the hats were removed from stores in October and appeared in the Pacific Centre on Saturday by mistake.

“It is never our intention to offend, and we sincerely apologize for this oversight,” Bourré wrote.

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HBC did not reply to a request to comment specifically on Levant’s complaint.

with files from Alex McKeen

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