TORONTO – A Toronto court will hear arguments today on an attempt to bar the Cleveland Indians from using their team name and logo in Ontario.
The legal challenge by indigenous activist Douglas Cardinal comes on the same day that the baseball team takes on the Toronto Blue Jays in Game 3 of the American League Championship Series.
Cardinal’s lawyers will ask the court to bar the usage of the name and logo by the team, Major League Baseball and Rogers Communications, which is broadcasting the American League Championship Series.
Rogers also owns the Blue Jays and the stadium they play in, the Rogers Centre.
“It’s not just that imagery and the words. It’s the impact it has on the indigenous peoples. It is this statement that you are separate, that you are something to ridicule, that you’re a source of humour,” Cardinal’s spokesman Joe Householder told reporters Monday morning.
The logo, called Chief Wahoo, is a cartoon man with red skin and a feather in his headband.
Cardinal’s representatives say team members shouldn’t be allowed to wear their regular jerseys, the logo shouldn’t be broadcast and the team should be referred to as “the Cleveland team.”
“The Cleveland team during spring training was wearing uniforms, we have photographs that we’ll present to the court, with just Cleveland on it. No Chief Wahoo on the sleeve. They have the uniforms in their possession,” Householder said. “Canadian law is clear this is racially discriminatory. So it’ll be a simple act of changing your shirt.”
Housesholder said a petition has also been brought forward to the Human Rights Commission of Canada and the Ontario Human Rights Commission.
“The racially, discriminatory language and images are going to be in the community tonight. There’s a request for an immediate injunction to stop that, pending the outcome of those Human Rights Commission investigations,” he said.
-With files from Global News
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