On this Remembrance Day, Hockey Night in Canada’s Don Cherry is making news for all the wrong reasons, and it’s too bad, because ‘Grapes’ is a staunch supporter of Canada’s war veterans and Royal Canadian Legions and that’s where the focus should be.
Instead, the bombastic hockey commentator crossed the line, as he tends to do, on Saturday night when he ranted about people who have immigrated to Canada and (allegedly) don’t wear poppies at this time of year.
“You people that come here, you love our way of life, you love our milk and honey, at least you can pay a couple of bucks for poppies or something like that,” said Cherry. “These guys paid for your way of life that you enjoy in Canada.”
Cherry’s commentary was abhorrent, racist and xenophobic and — to no one’s surprise — were met with a tidal wave of criticism.
Sportsnet responded by issuing a statement on Sunday.
“Don’s discriminatory comments are offensive and they do not represent our values and what we stand for as a network. We have spoken with Don about the severity of this issue and we sincerely apologize for these divisive remarks,” said Sportsnet President Bart Yabsley.
This isn’t the first time that Cherry has been condemned his comments during his weekly ‘Coach’s Corner’ segment alongside Hockey Night in Canada host Ron MacLean, but if Yabsley and the other higher ups at Sportsnet truly believe Cherry’s comments don’t represent their ‘values’ and what the network stands for, then shouldn’t Grapes pay the price?
I think we can all agree that Cherry is still employed because his controversial style continues to draw viewers, but as of Sunday afternoon there had been no apology from the longtime hockey commentator and no penalty announced by the network.
If Sportsnet has no plans to fire Cherry, as some people are demanding, the network should at least suspend him for a show, or two.
At the very least, Cherry should apologize on-air.