Ontario judge quashes bid to ban Cleveland baseball team’s name, logo
TORONTO — An effort to ban the Cleveland Indians from using their full team name and logo when they played the Toronto Blue Jays was dismissed by an Ontario judge on Monday evening, just a few hours before the baseball teams met in a high-stakes playoff game.
Justice Thomas McEwen issued his ruling after lawyers for an indigenous activist sought to bar use of the American team’s name and logo in Ontario, arguing they amounted to racial discrimination.
Indigenous activist and architect Douglas Cardinal had filed complaints to the Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario and Canadian Human Rights Commission on the matter, but pursued an injunction in a Toronto court before those cases were ruled on.
His lawyers had argued that the Cleveland team name and logo of “Chief Wahoo” — a grinning cartoon man with red skin and a feather in his headband — was a violation of the Ontario Human Rights Code and Canada’s Human Rights Act.