Tribe Toronto is fighting back against a decision by the Toronto Mas Bands Association (TMBA) to bar them from participating in the 2010 Caribana festival.

The band is owned by masman Andre DeFreitas, who has brought out mas for Caribana for years alongside his father Kenty DeFreitas, one of the pioneers of the Toronto carnival.

Earlier this year, Andre DeFreitas notified TMBA that he was changing the name of his band from All Spice Carnival to Tribe Toronto. He got the name Tribe – the largest and most popular band in Trinidad – under a licensing agreement with that Trinidad band, but insists that Tribe Toronto is an Ontario corporation solely owned by him.

But as The Camera reported last month, the TMBA has decided to stop Tribe Toronto from taking part in Caribana 2010, saying that doing so would violate the procedures and laws governing the funding of mas bands for the event. According to the TMBA, as a band affiliated with a Trinidadian band, Tribe Toronto would make the TMBA liable over the funding process, as government grants to the mas bands are meant for Canadian bands only, and not for bands owned or operated outside of the country.

TMBA also said it felt that Tribe Toronto could jeopardise Caribana.

But that is nonsense, says DeFreitas, since Tribe Toronto is a fully owned Canadian band that has simply licensed the Tribe brand. Tribe is an international company with affiliates in Australia, England and the USA.

This, he says, makes the funding point moot, since any funding Tribe Toronto receives will be going to a fully Canadian-owned band.

Said De Freitas, “We thought that Toronto is such a hot commodity and many people would like to visit here, so what could we do to attract more people? We then came up with the idea of licensing the Tribe brand, just as many other successful businesses do here in Canada with other brands.”

He said they chose the Tribe brand to fulfil the need of those who cannot travel to Trinidad for the “Tribe experience” as it is called. “We simply wanted to bring a more intense Trinidadian taste, but as a Canadian owned venture, to Toronto.”

As it stands, however, the TMBA isn’t budging. It not only banned Tribe Toronto from taking part, but expelled DeFreitas from the TMBA for 2 years.

DeFreitas isn’t taking it lying down, and has dashed off several lawyer’s letters to TMBA, threatening to sue to ensure his band gets to participate in Caribana 2010. Tribe has also brought the matter to the attention of Toronto Mayor David Miller.

“If TMBA is suggesting that a Toronto version of Tribe would be anything but beneficial to Caribana, this is certainly not supported by either common sense or evidence,” said the mas man.

“There are other Caribana bands that use international brands with no objections or difficulties. So why are they banning us?”

The DeFreitas family has been involved in Caribana for 42 years.