Ontario city settles complaint over use of Indigenous mascots, logos

Indigenous-themed mascots, names, imagery and symbols used by non-aboriginal sports teams will be removed from arenas and other facilities in Mississauga, Ont., under a mediated settlement before the province’s human rights tribunal, the complainant said on Thursday.

The agreement reached late last month ends a complaint from a resident businessman, who said he found the use of such names and imagery offensive.

“(The settlement) recognizes native mascots as a human rights issue,” Bradley Gallant, a business consultant and member of the Qalipu First Nation, said in an interview.

“It’s not tradition. It’s something that you can no longer say you’re doing it because it’s honouring us - because the intent of your use of a mascot doesn’t matter; it’s the effect or the harm that the mascot causes.”

Gallant filed the complaint with the Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario in 2015 because he said he didn’t want his children to grow up feeling ashamed of their heritage. He said Mississauga, just west of Toronto, should not provide funding to teams with racially insensitive names and logos, like the Mississauga Chiefs or Lorne Park Ojibwa. He said he also wanted the city to remove banners featuring the teams’ names and logos from municipal buildings, arguing they contribute to a harmful and discriminatory environment.