Canada’s largest private sector union replaced one of its advertisements that ran during Monday night’s NBA Finals game after discovering a man portrayed as a Canadian soldier in the 30-second video is not a member of the Canadian Armed Forces.

Unifor’s ad featured footage of someone dressed as a soldier in front of a Canadian flag and strikes patriotic tones as it calls for voters to “stand strong” in the next election.

But on Tuesday the union scrapped the advertisement after finding out that the man in the footage was only dressed in a military uniform.

Unifor said in a statement to iPolitics that the footage of the man dressed as a soldier, as well as other stock footage used in the ad, was purchased from a third-party. The union had thought the soldier was Canadian before it ran the commercial and only found out after it aired that the man was just dressed in a military uniform.

“As soon as we were made aware that the soldier in front of the Canadian flag was not wearing Canadian camouflage the shot was replaced,” Unifor said.

The union had planned to run the ad over the next month.

Unifor, which represents more than 315,000 workers across the country, has attracted controversy as of late for its inclusion on a panel that will help determine who will rule on the eligibility for promised government tax incentives for news organizations. The federal Conservatives have accused the union of being too biased to sit on the panel after president Jerry Dias posed for a photo shared online with fellow Unifor staff that included text reading “The resistance” and “Welcome to Andrew Scheer’s worst nightmare” at the bottom.

Unifor’s “Stand With Canada’s Workers” commercial has been seen as a response to commercials that the Conservative Party has run during the Canadian broadcasts of the NBA Finals.

“This election, people will try to divide us and scare us into becoming something we’re not, but we face our challenges head on, together,” a voiceover on the commercial says.

“That’s what makes us Canadian,” says the ad, while the man dressed as a soldier is shown.

“Not where we were born or how we worship or who we love. This fall we need a government who will unite us, not tear us apart, with a real plan for new jobs that won’t be slashed or sent overseas. This election, stand strong. Stand with Canada’s workers.”

As well as paying to have the ad broadcast on Sportsnet during Game 5 of the NBA Finals, which the Toronto Raptors are playing in for the first time ever and have drawn a record-setting Canadian viewership, Unifor also posted the ad on Twitter. Several Twitter users responded to Unifor’s tweet pointing out that the uniformed individual was not a Canadian soldier. The union has since pulled the ad offline, and have shared a new version with the section featuring the man dressed as a soldier replaced.

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