Edmonton football club wants to meet with national Inuit org

Members of the Edmonton Eskimos arrive home after winning the Grey Cup. The aircraft they used is chartered from the Inuit-owned Canadian North airline, which in 2013 billed itself as “a proud partner of the Edmonton Eskimos.” At that time Canadian North, through Norterra, was owned 50-50 by Nunasi Corp. of Nunavut and the Inuvialuit Development Corp. The Inuvialuit now own 100 per cent of the company. (PHOTO COURTESY OF THE EDMONTON ESKIMOS)

Discussions between the Edmonton Eskimos football club and the Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami, which has demanded that the Edmonton team change its name, remain still at a preliminary stage and the two organizations have not yet held a face-to-face meeting, a team spokesperson said Dec. 2.

“We’ve reached out to ITK. We take this very seriously. We take our name, our brand, very seriously. We take what Mr. Obed had to say very seriously,” said Allan Watts, vice president of marketing and communication for the Edmonton Eskimos.

“These things are always better if you do them, organize a meeting face-to-face, and we would love to see that happen, sooner rather than later.”

ITK President Natan Obed published an op-ed in the Globe and Mail Nov. 27 calling on the Canadian Football League team to end its use of the word “Eskimos” in its name.

The article appeared two days before the football team went on to beat the Ottawa Redblacks in the 103rd Grey Cup final in Winnipeg.

And on Dec. 2, Obed gave Nunatsiaq News a second statement that explains his position to Inuit.

“The colonial legacy of naming is about power and control. The issue of Inuit being used as a sports team mascot matters, because this is the way this legacy continues to play out in popular culture,” Obed said in his release.

While both organizations have confirmed reaching out to one another to arrange a meeting, no direct discussion between the Edmonton team and ITK has taken place.

ITK has acknowledged it sent private correspondence to the football team on Dec. 1.

The confirmation seems to contradict suggestions by local Edmonton media in recent days that a conversation between the organizations already occurred.

According to Watts, communication between the football club and the City of Edmonton on the issue is strong.

“[Edmonton] mayor Don Iveson was with us at the Grey Cup. He was with us yesterday. He was one of the speakers at the [Grey Cup] reception. We’re in touch with his office all the time. He takes these kinds of things very seriously as well,” he said.

“I don’t mean to speak on behalf of him, but I can tell you that when we are talking directly to him.”

A member of the official Canadian delegation to the United Nations climate change conference in Paris, Obed is now at the COP 21, which runs until Dec. 11.

“We have every intention of reaching out and we’re really hoping we can get together with Natan, because that obviously and clearly is the right thing to do. So we’ll continue to try and do that,” Watts said.