Complaint over ad during Washington NFL game not in Tribunal’s jurisdiction, adjudicator says

A complaint to the Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario against George Brown College (GBC) over the airing of an ad during a game of the Washington National Football League (NFL) team was dismissed in December.

Brad Gallant, who identifies as a Qalipu Mi’kmaq, made the complaint claiming that the college airing the ad during the game was discriminatory as the college was a public institution.

In his application Gallant wrote, “Redskins is a slur and discriminatory against Indigenous, First Nations, and Native peoples. When GBC aligned itself with a Redskins broadcast it gave its institutional sanction to lesser treatment of First Nations people.”

The adjudicator for the case, Keith Brennenstuhl, ruled that there was no service relationship between Gallant, who was not a student, and the college and dismissed the application on that basis.

“The fact that the applicant’s son or that the applicant himself may at some time become a student at the respondent or that the respondent is a publicly funded institution does not provide a basis on which the Tribunal can ground its jurisdiction,” wrote Brennenstuhl in the decision.