Oct 18, 2016
By Jane Brown
An indigenous activist says he’s disappointed his effort to get an injunction banning the Cleveland Indians from using their full team name and logo while playing the Blue Jays in Toronto was dismissed.
Justice Thomas McEwen issued his ruling late yesterday afternoon after lawyers for 82 year old Douglas Cardinal argued the team name and logo of a cartoon Chief Wahoo amount to racial discrimination and violate the Ontario Human Rights Code and Canada’s Human Rights Act.
But Cardinal lawyer Michael Swinwood says a lot of good has come out of this.
“It’s a win-win and the win is all of you people standing here,” Swinwood told reporters, “and having heard these arguments and having raised the issue, we believe the awareness around this issue has now been elevated.”
Douglas Cardinal has also filed complaints to the Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario and Canadian Human Rights Commission on the matter.
A lawyer for the Cleveland team says the “inappropriate” request from Cardinal amounted to asking a court for censorship.
A lawyer for Major League Baseball questioned why Cardinal was bringing his injunction while the Blue Jays were in the playoffs, saying he’d been exposed to the logo and the name since 1977.
To learn about advertising opportunities with Zoomer Radio use the link below: