Michael McCain, the chief executive of a Canadian meat processor, Maple Leaf Foods, strongly criticized President Trump and his foreign policy on Twitter on Sunday night.
In tweets published on the company’s official account but signed by him, Mr. McCain blamed “U.S. government leaders” and “a narcissist in Washington” for policies that led to last week’s downing of a jetliner near Tehran, killing all 176 people on board, including 63 Canadians.
Among the dead, Mr. McCain said, was the family of a Maple Leaf Foods colleague.
The plane was shot down as tensions escalated following the United States killing of a top Iranian military commander, Maj. Gen. Qassim Suleimani. Iranian leaders eventually conceded that they had shot the aircraft down and said it was a human error.
The statements, from the head of a large Canadian company, were a rare show of political anger from the corporate world, where executives tend to stay out of the fray. The tweets stated that they were personal reflections.
Maple Leaf Foods confirmed that the statements were written by Mr. McCain, but said he would not be commenting further. “Michael would prefer to let the messages in his tweets speak for themselves,” the company said in an email. “He felt the tragedy warranted his response.”
“I am very angry, and time isn’t making me less angry,” Mr. McCain wrote. “A MLF colleague of mind lost his wife and family this week to a needless, irresponsible series of events in Iran.”
“U.S. government leaders unconstrained by checks/balances, concocted an ill-conceived plan to divert focus from political woes,” he continued.
The statement does not use Mr. Trump’s name. Mr. McCain said a “narcissist in Washington tears world accomplishment apart; destabilizes region.” This had made the United States “unwelcomed everywhere in the area including Iraq” and the “collateral damage of this irresponsible, dangerous, ill-conceived behavior” meant that “63 Canadians needlessly lost their lives in the crossfire, including the family of one of my MLF colleagues (his wife + 11 year old son)!” he said.
Mr. McCain, who has worked for Maple Leaf Foods since 1995 and became the chief executive last February, signed off saying, “We are mourning and I am livid. Michael McCain.”