The Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario is out of one sports arena thanks to foreign soccer players dropping their anti-turf lawsuit, but they're into another one, investigating a complaint by a self-described men's rights activist that the team threatened to cancel his season tickets after he complained about their support for the anti-domestic violence White Ribbon Campaign. Complainant Robert Heath argued to the tribunal the WRC "discriminates against men" and that his rights under the Ontario Human Rights Code were being violated by the team showing ads for the WRC during games. That complaint was dismissed earlier this month, but the tribunal allowed another one of Heath's charges (that the Argonauts threatened to cancel his tickets in reprisal, which they deny) to proceed, as The Toronto Sun reported Jan. 16. TSN, Deadspin and Matt English all weighed in on the story Monday, bringing it to a much broader audience, but it doesn't appear that the tribunal's issued any further decisions since Jan. 16. However, it's well worth examining this case, and just what it could mean for the Argonauts and the CFL.

The critical takeaway is that this case should do absolutely nothing to stop the CFL and its teams from supporting campaigns against domestic violence. Stopping that was Heath's major focus, and he's failed there. From his complaint (via English): "Having been a victim of domestic violence 27 years ago and knowing that the WRC only looks at half the population and not the whole population (50% of victims of domestic violence are men), and the WRC claims that women are the victims and men are the villains, the WRC sexually discriminates against men. Therefore, if the Toronto Argonauts are supporting the WRC, then they are supporting sexual discrimination against men." (As English notes, the statistics Heath cites are ridiculous.) That complaint was dismissed in a Jan. 13 ruling by tribunal adjudicator Keith Brennenstuhl:



[9] It is not the purpose of the Code to generally police the charities, philanthropic groups or other organizations of a like nature that a service provider supports. The fact that the Argonauts have chosen to support a cause which recognizes that violence against women is an insidious reality and which seeks to reduce that violence does not mean that it supports violence against men or any other group in society, nor does it infer they even take any position on these or any other countless social issues. Accordingly there is simply no basis to the applicant’s claim that he has, as a male, been subjected to Code related discrimination (even if he does sincerely believe this). Taken to its extreme, the applicant’s position would preclude any organization (and perhaps even any individual) from supporting any charitable or philanthropic cause as it would be open to complaints of discrimination in its choice of causes to support. This simply is not tenable. If anything, programs which seek to reduce discrimination and inequality – and it is difficult to imagine how any program designed to reduce violence against an identifiable group is not consistent with reducing discrimination and inequality - are to be encouraged as consistent with and supportive of the underlying purposes of the Code.



[10] It is evident that the applicant does not support the WRC and that he was disappointed that the Argonauts chose to provide its name to the campaign. However, a person’s hurt feelings, anxiety or upset about a situation does not mean that the Code was violated.



[11] I find that there is no reasonable prospect that the allegations that the applicant was subjected to discrimination at the hands of the respondent when it promoted the WRC will succeed. These allegations cannot reasonably be considered to amount to a Code violation.









That's a ruling that bodes well for the CFL's teams and their endeavours to support anti-domestic violence programs. There have been a lot of positive steps on that front, from the B.C. Lions' Be More Than A Bystander program to the Calgary Stampeders and Edmonton Eskimos teaming up with the Alberta Council of Women's Shelters to the Argos' involvement with the White Ribbon Campaign (a program started in Canada in 1991 in the wake of the 1989 École Polytechnique massacre, it's since grown into "the world’s largest movement of men and boys working to end violence against women and girls, promote gender equity, healthy relationships and a new vision of masculinity"; Argonauts' CEO Chris Rudge was involved in the campaign's founding). The league is working with those organizations and more to develop a CFL-wide domestic violence policy (something that's needed, as there are several controversial cases involving players currently in the league). If the tribunal had taken Heath's complaint on that front more seriously, other self-described "men's rights activists" might have followed suit and threatened the CFL teams involved in anti-domestic violence programs with further legal action. The denial of his complaint on that front should reaffirm that CFL teams are welcome to support these programs.

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