Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment says it will ban four people from all MLSE properties for no less than one year after vulgar comments were hurled at a female reporter during a Toronto FC game last weekend.
CityNews reporter Shauna Hunt was at BMO Field Sunday afternoon recording a segment when a number of men shouted “F*** her right in the p***” in her direction.
Hunt confronted the men, along with another group of men that admitted they were planning to do the same thing.
The video quickly went viral and the MLSE promptly said it was working to identify the individuals involved.
Reporters have been harassed with the phrase in cities across the world for the past year and in a written statement issued Tuesday, the MLSE said it was “appalled” by the offensive trend.
“Our organization is committed to an environment where everyone can feel safe and included and discrimination or intolerance of any kind will be met with a swift and serious response. We’re thankful to our vast majority of fans for standing up against such sexist behaviour and working with us to help prevent it in the future,” the statement said.
The names of the men who have been banned have not been released by MLSE however one of the men involved was fired from his job at Hydro One following Sunday's incident.
MLSE spokesperson Dave Haggith told CP24's Jackie Crandles that the standard length of time for a ban is one year but after that time has passed, the men can apply for reinstatement.
"This happened outside the stadium but this could have happened on Yonge Street. Unfortunately you can’t ban somebody from walking down Yonge Street but we can say in our facilities, on our property, that it’s not OK," Haggith added.
