Racist reaction following the sudden death of an elderly man just moments after the Abbotsford Canada Day parade has shocked the community — and resulted in the person behind a social media post being fired.

Sohan Singh Sidhu was riding in the bed of a pickup truck hauling a trailer that had acted as a parade float for the Indo-Canadian Seniors Society.

Just minutes after the parade, he fell off the back of the truck and was struck by the trailer.

Sidhu was visiting from India and his family here was left with making funeral arrangements instead of planning the next part of his vacation.

Now the Sikh community is in shock after a racist Facebook post surfaced the next day in reaction to Sidhu's death. The post used hateful language and expressed a wish for more people to have been hurt in the incident.

A man has been fired after making this Facebook post mocking the death of a senior. (CBC)

"This is not good… he should think before he put on the post," said Bhajan Singh Toor with the Khalsa Diwan Society.

"I would tell the community, we should not be like these things on the post, on social media. We like to live together. We always love each other."

'We think that we're done with this... in Canada'

The president and CEO of Terralink Horticulture says the man who posted on Facebook worked at the company — until he was fired Tuesday morning for his post.

"It's pretty shocking, especially when it's someone who's working for your firm," Stan Loewen said. "We think that we're done with this in the country, in Canada — obviously we're not."

Loewen says he hopes the Sikh community knows the man who wrote the racist post is not an accurate representation of Canada and the Abbotsford community he calls a cultural mosaic.

The Khalsa Diwan Society said it was pleased to see action taken immediately but reiterated the pain the man's post caused to the community.

Sohan Singh Sidhu was visiting from India. (Family photo)

With files from Zahra Premji

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