Trump hat leads to fight in MacHall food court

By Scott Strasser, October 18 2016 —

For the second time this semester, a baseball hat showing support for United States presidential candidate Donald Trump has caused a stir at a Calgary post-secondary institution — this time at the University of Calgary.

In mid-September, a video capturing a squabble between Mount Royal University students over a “Make America Great Again” hat went viral. In that video, MRU student Zoe Slusar confronted fellow student Matt Linder about his baseball cap, accusing Linder of spreading hate speech by donning the cap.

Now, just a month later, Calgary Police Services are investigating a politically-charged fight over another “Make America Great Again” hat that took place at the U of C on Oct. 14.

Melanie Woods

U of C campus security and CPS both confirmed that a fist-fight between two males — one of them a U of C student — broke out in the MacHall food court on Oct. 14 around 6:30 p.m.

“The two people who got in the fight have differing versions of events at this point on who instigated, so it’s an active investigation we’re still pursuing,” CPS district three sergeant Clayton Martin said. “Right now we’re trying to determine who the instigator of this incident was, as each party is claiming the other is the one who started the fight.”

While the scrap started after comments were made about the hat, both participants share differing accounts of what happened afterwards.

Martin said CPS will work with U of C campus security to examine closed-circuit television footage of the altercation, though footage of the incident is partially blocked by a pole in the food court.

“We’ve obtained a copy of the video, but I don’t know yet what the quality of that video is or if it shows the incident very well,” he said.

Though both parties were treated at the scene, Martin said neither person was seriously injured or hospitalized.

“The person not wearing the hat appears to have suffered two bite marks and possibly a cut lip,” Martin said. “It doesn’t appear there were any injuries noted on the person wearing the hat. That doesn’t mean some may not have come up until the next day. Sometimes it takes a little bit for people to bruise.”

According to Martin, no arrests were made on either side following the fight. Both men agreed they want to move past the incident.