ITK Welcomes Announcement By Edmonton CFL Team To Discontinue Name
Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami welcomes today’s announcement by the Board of Directors of the Edmonton Canadian Football League team to discontinue use of its outdated moniker and transition to a new, as yet undetermined name. ITK has consistently maintained that ongoing use of the team’s name is damaging to Inuit and to reconciliation. The process of recognizing and responding to these harmful effects is key to reconciliation between Inuit and Canada, and contributes to the monumental work required to dismantle systemic racism.
We thank the Edmonton team for reaching this important decision and wish them well in their process to determine a new name. We also thank them for the relationships they have built with Inuit over the past several years and hope that they continue to celebrate Inuit fans and to work with Inuit across our homeland, Inuit Nunangat. ITK is grateful for the vocal support that has contributed to bring about this decision – from Inuit youth to corporate sponsors and Canadian citizens who saw an injustice and felt compelled to speak out. Your voices have brought us here.
