Native American woman who worked as cultural advisor to Blackhawks sues team for sex harassment, fraud

[These Are The Days]

Gavin McKenna confirmed. f*** you Wirtz

 

[PhysicalGraffiti]

Ah, my favorite part of HF Boards where the rocket scientists and bio-engineers give their guilty verdict immediately upon hearing accusations.

 

[Telos]

The story sounds like it is falling apart. It is just low-hanging fruit to go after the Blackhawks right now Like anything, gotta wait and see what comes of it, but it sound like this is someone just trying to grab an easy settlement against an organization mired in recent controversy and looking to avoid negative media.

 

[TheBeard]

 

[Ezekial]

How could Stan Bowman, John McDonough and co. allow this?

 

[WhataKnight]

If any franchise in the NHL leads the way in recent behaviours which make a “potential nothing-burger” gallivant into the zone of “but I’m going to wait and see if the accused parties can land on both feet after this without breaking both ankles”…..

…..it would be the Chicago Blackhawks.

The Corey Perry thing happened not seven months ago. I’m not going to call this woman a grifter unless the Hawks come out of the other side of these accusations robed in velvet and smelling like sassafras. The organization’s practically an NFT made of a “right for high scrutiny.”

 

[BigBadBruins7708]

just a grifter trying to snag a payday

 

[MrHeiskanen]

I realize who the organization is but this is honestly a nothing story, cliff notes:

1. Brought in as part of a group to improve relations between Hawks organization and native Americans, says the name is racist and must be changed.
2. Hawks say no and (after donating a wad of cash and a FREAKIN HELICOPTER, THATS SICK) the groups agree and no longer want the name changed.
3. She still wants them to change their name, so they constructively dismiss her
4. Once this happens she accuses someone of sexual harassment despite never mentioning it at the time to anyone.
5. The accused doesn't work for the Hawks, just someone attached to a company they hired as part of this outreach.

It's like if Applebee's used Hire Waiters LLC to hire all their staff, and at a store location, one waiter harassed another. Should Applebee's be held liable in this scenario? No IMO.

2. Shiny toys seem to impress you, almost like what the organization was going for here.
4. "Sanders alleges she complained about all these incidents to her supervisor, the director of the team's charitable arm, the Chicago Blackhawks Foundation." Please explain your point.
5. Sounds like legal semantics, "Dude was a contractor, not an employee" .. but I can't confirm these details.

 

[chaser17]

Hawks hired a SJW loony and immediately regretted it.

 

[WhiskeyYerTheDevils]

I'm not trying to pass judgment, but this sounds a lot like a disgruntled employee (independent contractor?) who didn't like the direction they went on the logo (against her recommendation).

 

[WarriorofTime]

That said, the sexual harrassment stuff is big.

In response to harassment allegations made by Ms. Sanders:

The Chicago Blackhawks have a zero tolerance policy for misconduct and take allegations of harassment in the workplace very seriously. In response to Ms. Sanders' allegations, the organization immediately conducted a thorough investigation with the assistance of outside counsel, including interviews with internal and external parties, and review of pertinent materials and digital records. Based on the information available to us, we found insufficient evidence to substantiate her claims. Of note, the persons identified by Ms. Sanders in your question are not, and have never been, independent contractors with nor employees of the Chicago Blackhawks.

It would be a bit hard to make up that a person alleged is not an independent contractor or employee with the Blackhawks.

 

[Avs2022]

Read until the end of the article before coming in and saying something about the organization.

Seriously. I think many responses seem to be having a knee jerk reactions from other Blackhawk front office issues. Aside from the sexual harassment part (if it is true, she should easily have evidence), all the other stuff sounds frivolous and almost ridiculous that she would sue for those reasons in the article.

 

[WarriorofTime]

The Corey Perry thing happened not seven months ago.

Yeah, and he was immediately removed by the organization when most would have swept it under the rug as a nothing-burger and Perry was rewarded with his contract and getting to sign with a Playoff team.

 

[CTHabsfan]

That organization is top notch, a true representation of rotted carcass boys club that the NHL is comprised of. Even if we question the merits and motivations of this individual, they still used their charitable foundation to pay off a tribe so that they wouldn't have to rebrand from their racist logo.

I don't pretend to know the validity of the sexual harassment claims, so I'm not going to comment on that, but it seems a bit naive of Ms. Sanders to think the Blackhawks were going to hire her if they had any plans to change the name. As for the tribe, they could have refused the offer and continued to demand a change of name and logo.

 

[Sol]

Why do they have to load up the headline with Native American? Seems like that takes a way from the allegations. The SnapChat videos are already damning. Weird to somehow throw the native american angle as if that's a multiplying factor when it just distracts from the allegations even more.

The Hawks really need to clean house entirely.

 

[Machinehead]

In regards to the other issues, I'm not going to comment on what I think of the logo, but it seems as though there was categorical disagreement on that, and team moved on accordingly.

Due diligence has to be done on the SA allegations, given how the team has been documented to have handled that in the past.

I don't doubt that it happened; it's not my place to say. There does appear to be some smoke that the parties responsible aren't the team's responsibility, and we obviously don't know either way for sure just yet.

Calling it grift without all of the facts is every bit as bad as reacting the other way without all the facts. Probably worse given the legal/financial engine that's behind an NHL team.

 

[MeHateHe]

It's like if Applebee's used Hire Waiters LLC to hire all their staff, and at a store location, one waiter harassed another. Should Applebee's be held liable in this scenario?

Yes, because Applebee's is responsible for what happens on their property. You can't just outsource your hiring decisions and pretend that insulates you from things that happen in your name. In your scenario, what's preventing Hire Waiters LLC from just contracting a third party to conduct hiring on its behalf, and then no one is responsible?

So the Blackhawks are responsible for things done in their name. If they put decision-making power in the hands of someone they ultimately can't control, then that was a terrible business decision on their part.

 

[McRpro]

Hawks hired a SJW loony and immediately regretted it.

Seems like a lot of businessnes are starting to regret making that same decision these days, thankfully.

 

[saintunspecified]

1. I have no idea about the lawsuit.

2. It's 2024. call me a sjw if you want, idgaf. Using native faces on logos, especially one who was fighting against the settlers? well, it's yikes. It's been yikes for a long time. Most people know it's yikes.

3. And justifying it by getting the endorsements of some leaders who received a decommissioned helicopter is some anachronistic bull***. Come on you yikesy mfs.

4. Maybe the lawsuit is really just an elaborate ploy to get a giant neon pointing finger with 'yikes' pointing at the blackhawks. because you know...

 

[Crede777]

In regards to the other issues, I'm not going to comment on what I think of the logo, but it seems as though there was categorical disagreement on that, and team moved on accordingly.

Due diligence has to be done on the SA allegations, given how the team has been documented to have handled that in the past.

I don't doubt that it happened; it's not my place to say. There does appear to be some smoke that the parties responsible aren't the team's responsibility, and we obviously don't know either way for sure just yet.

Calling it grift without all of the facts is every bit as bad as reacting the other way without all the facts. Probably worse given the legal/financial engine that's behind an NHL team.

It sounds like they did do due diligence on the SA allegation. They hired an outside firm to investigate and allowed the firm to conduct interviews and access pertinent documents.

 

[WarriorofTime]

Why do they have to load up the headline with Native American? Seems like that takes a way from the allegations. The SnapChat videos are already damning. Weird to somehow throw the native american angle as if that's a multiplying factor when it just distracts from the allegations even more.

The Hawks really need to clean house entirely.

Read the article, she was brought in as a DEI consultant on the logo and they didn't agree with what she wanted and now she's suing

 

[PhysicalGraffiti]

Hawks hired a SJW loony and immediately regretted it.

2020 was a nightmare of companies and groups overreacting and overcompensating to please the loud groups. They were terrified of not following suit, and they placated to an insulting level. It was not the best time of humanity in the US.

That being said, it was great for litigation, between that and COVID I had one of the busiest years ever.

 

[saintunspecified]

I don't pretend to know the validity of the sexual harassment claims, so I'm not going to comment on that, but it seems a bit naive of Ms. Sanders to think the Blackhawks were going to hire her if they had any plans to change the name.

Maybe it's naive.

And you should know because this is about as naive as it gets:

As for the tribe, they could have refused the offer and continued to demand a change of name and logo.

lol sure

 

[Sol]

The Hawks legit have the most unique and coolest logo in the entire NHL.

 

[Kranix]

The fanbase has been through enough already