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He failed to convince a court to grant an emergency injunction banning the name and logo from a playoff game against the Blue Jays last year, but in the months since, the Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario decided it has jurisdiction to hear the case. If it eventually decides, as Cardinal alleges, that using the name “Indians” and the Chief Wahoo logo at baseball games constitutes discrimination in the provision of a public service, it can ban their use at all future games played in Ontario.

“The discrimination occurs whenever the Cleveland Team plays the Toronto Blue Jays at Ontario’s Rogers Centre and will continue each season, when the Cleveland Team plays in Ontario, as mandated by the MLB schedule,” court records show Cardinal claims.

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A parallel case before the Canadian Human Rights Commission could similarly limit the team’s rights to broadcast the name and logo in Canada.

MLB is seeking to avert this possibility by challenging the right of human rights tribunals to even entertain these questions. If the league is successful Wednesday, it could cast a chill over the entire debate about racist sports team names and mascots, which has typically been the subject of public debate and consumer pressure, not lawsuits.

The league claims the tribunal’s decision to hear the case “usurps the exclusive jurisdiction of the Federal Court and infringes on Federal Parliament’s legislative responsibilities. It fails to give proper scope to Canada’s treaty obligations,” such as the duty to respect foreign owned trade-marks, and it “mischaracterizes the rights of registered trade-mark owners.”