Dwarf tossing continues to come under fire.
Weeks after the novelty ‘sport’ gained international attention at the Golden Globe Awards, a strip bar in Windsor, Ont., plans to host a dwarf tossing competition Saturday night.
Customers at Leopard’s Lounge and Broil can register for the chance to literally throw a little person.
Jamie Danforth of Windsor is the father in a family of four little people and called it "ignorance at its highest level."
"It is insane that in today’s society we still have this going on. I don’t need my daughters thinking this is the type of thing they have to be subjected to," he wrote in an email to CBC News. "We wouldn't throw the elderly or people in wheelchairs."
Windsor resident Jennie Berkley called city councillors Ron Jones and Alan Halberstadt to complain that the event was “degrading” and “ridiculous” and should be stopped.
Jones noted there is no law that prevents dwarf tossing — not that efforts haven't been made to enact one.
A dwarf-tossing event in Windsor angered former Windsor West Liberal MPP Sandra Pupatello so much in 2003, she tabled the Dwarf Tossing Act, a private members bill that didn't pass.
Leopard's owner Rob Katzman wasn't immediately available for comment when CBC News placed a call to his club.
But the club's manager, Barry Maroon, sees no problem with the event. He claimed that he has been fielding calls from little people who are excited to attend the event.
"It was just a fun night, no harm, no foul," Maroon said of the last time the club hosted dwarf tossing.
Maroon said the little people involved wear protection and aren't in danger.
Jones also said little people are "protected under the Charter of Rights and Freedoms to make a living."
The almost medieval sounding concept of dwarf tossing made international news earlier this month when actor and little person Peter Dinklage, while accepting his Golden Globe award for his role in ‘A Game of Thrones’, ended his acceptance speech with a mention of an unfamiliar name.
"I want to mention a gentleman I am thinking of in England,” Dinklage said. “His name is Martin Henderson. Google him.”
Although he didn’t elaborate, a wave of curiosity swept through social media, where people came to learn of Henderson. Henderson, measuring about 1.4 metres (four feet, six inches) was celebrating his birthday at the White Horse pub in Somerset, England on Oct. 7. 2011. The 37-year-old man was attacked when he went outside to get a cigarette, various media outlets report.
Henderson was picked up and dropped from the approximate height of a metre (three feet). He believed that attack was inspired by a then-recent "dwarf-tossing" event that was attended by some members of England's national rugby team.
The attack left him badly injured. His injuries coupled with a pre-existing spinal condition have made pain unbearable and now Henderson is being fit for a wheelchair.
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