The conviction of one great Canadian and the mob that took him out.
Chris
November 14, 2019
Minor updates were made to this article on November 14, 2019 at 5:40pmEST. The Coach's Corner broadcast was not pre-recorded, it was aired live, but did run twice without any apparent issues until Sunday.
This week, Don Cherry, Hockey King of Canada, and passionate spokesperson for Canadian Veterans, was terminated or “cancelled” by Sportsnet (Rogers Media) for not perfecting his message about the importance of wearing a poppy for #RemembranceDay. Don Cherry is a commentator, and more than most, likely never uses a teleprompter. His knowledge of the game of hockey, his experience with Canadians from all walks of life, and his excellent broadcaster skills made him a favourite to watch on Hockey Night In Canada for the last thirty-eight years.
He speaks with conviction, has a ‘no-nonsense’ approach to life in Canada, and tells it how he sees it. He has offended many people over the years, including myself, but when you speak about important Canadian issues you are bound to ruffle a few feathers. Canada needs more people like Don Cherry and fewer people like the angry mob that came for his job after Saturday night.
This was exactly what Cherry said:
I was talking to a Veteran, and I said, “and I’m not going to run the poppy thing anymore because what’s the sense? I live in Mississauga, nobody wears – very few people wear – a poppy. Downtown Toronto, forget it, downtown Toronto, nobody wears a poppy.” And he says, “Wait a minute! How ‘bout running it for the people who buy them?” And you go to the small cities, and you know those – the rows on rows. You people love – you, they come here, whatever it is – you love our way of life, you love our milk and honey, at LEAST you could pay a couple of bucks for poppies or something like that. These guys paid for YOUR way of life, that you enjoy in Canada. These guys paid the biggest price.
The two words that cancelled Don Cherry were “you people”.
“You people” refers to non-poppy wearing Canadians. Period. You must not put words into someone’s mouth in order to feed your own need to feel better about yourself. There is evidence of this all-over social media from the regular virtue signallers, like Leader of the NDP, Jagmeet Singh.
Like many, Singh likely got so giddy at the opportunity to twist Cherry’s words and reprimand him online that he veered into an argument that had nothing to do with what Cherry actually said. Cherry did not even come close to saying anything along the lines of who served, and what their skin colour was (an identifier the left is quick to highlight). Singh goes on to state that “women, immigrants, LGBTQ2S Cdns, Indigenous people” were among those who served. We know, Jagmeet. Cherry knows. He has spoken up for Canadian Veterans more than any other Canadian TV personality and certainly more than these virtue signallers like yourself have ever done. He has been to Afghanistan to meet troops on Christmas Day. His message should have been pretty clear: wear the poppy out of respect of “Our Vets”.
This is a common tactic of the left to manipulate the facts so that their virtue signalling has legs. I do not disagree with the content of Singh’s tweet. How honoured you must feel to have a noble and brave soldier in your family. And Canada should be proud that Canadians of all backgrounds and lifestyles fought for the freedoms those Canadians experience today. See the trick lies in that if you disagree with Singh, you will be labelled a ‘misogynist’ and a ‘bigot’. And if you agree with Singh, well then you must disagree with Cherry and he must be cancelled. Left Logic.
At this juncture, no one is shocked that the left has responded this way. But how did Cherry’s community react?
There is no loyalty in this new age of watch what you say. Every arbitrary word can trigger those quick-fingered social snowflakes to cry “CANCEL!” And in some cases, it doesn’t have to be just a word.
A UBC Economics Professor, named Dr. Marina Adshade, is the exact kind of “feminist” that has made women everywhere feel ashamed of the term. She needs a lesson in what equality means; many women don’t agree that men need to be put down for women to be lifted up. But Dr. Adshade was so outraged by a group of ‘frat boys’ representing their community and laying wreaths at their Remembrance Day ceremony, she jumped on Twitter with her divisive language, seemingly before the ceremony even concluded.
Explain to me the reason why young men can be the target of blatant discrimination with no consequence, but we permit manipulation of arbitrary words lacking malicious intent in order to make the same point? Discrimination of any kind is wrong and immoral. But this is what we're up against. This is what Don Cherry was up against, and that angry ‘Cancel Mob’ held the flame to Sportsnet and Ron Maclean.
Note that the ‘Coach's Corner’ broadcast was aired twice with no apparent issues regarding the comments until the mob pounced. Even Cherry himself admitted in a Rebel News interview, he had no idea there was an issue until the next day. At that time, he was instructed to keep quiet for two days, apparently to allow Sportsnet and Ron Maclean time to get ahead of the story and initiate the grovelling.
When Cherry originally made his comments, Maclean could be seen next to him nodding. But if you want to keep your job in the escalating propaganda machine of the mainstream media, you must bow to those who won’t even accept someone NODDING in agreement, and Maclean was beaten down to deliver a ‘disappointing’ apology on Sunday evening’s Hometown Hockey broadcast. Note that when Ron Maclean was let go in 2014, Don was his ally. Now that the tables have turned… Ron throws him under the mob train. Global News quoted Cherry in response to Maclean’s Twitter apology, “I was very disappointed the way he handled [it],” Cherry said. “I don’t want to condemn him, but I was very disappointed. He buried me.”
I met Ron Maclean about four years ago at a local hockey event, and thought he was interesting, smart, and a genuine guy. Now, I have nothing nice to say so I will let this tweet speak for me:
In addition to leading awareness initiatives in organ donation, animal rights, and the Kidney Foundation of Canada, Cherry has previously been granted honorary membership of the Police Association of Ontario, was made a Dominion Command Honorary Life Member of The Royal Canadian Legion, and awarded the Canadian Forces Medallion for Distinguished Service for, ‘unwavering support to men and women of the Canadian Forces’. UNWAVERING SUPPORT TO MEN AND WOMEN OF THE CANADIAN FORCES. Just making sure we are clear.
Regardless of all this evidence that Don Cherry is a great Canadian (Number 8 Top Canadian according to CBC), even The Royal Canadian Legion turned their backs on Cherry and bent backwards for the social media tantrum throwers, releasing this reply on Twitter:
And of course, Hockey Canada had to jump on the virtue signal bandwagon too!
Let’s compare these reactions to real people. The silent majority that includes members of all generations including Gen Z. As young as intermediate-school-age, kids are countering with some of the sincerest reactions discussed among their peers. My two daughters came home this week and told me how many kids at school were outraged that Don Cherry has been attacked, removed from his role as broadcaster, and called a ‘racist’, but yet our Prime Minister has demonstrated racial appropriation three or more times (have we lost count?) and was re-elected to the highest office of Canada. If the hypocrisy is this obvious to our children, how do we have so many ignorant (or worse) adults being taken seriously by organizations like Federal Political Parties, Mainstream Media and The Royal Canadian Legion? Thank God humanity has some civility left and our youth have not been fully brainwashed by the left indoctrination.
Don Cherry has spent the last few days being interviewed by many independent and major news networks in Canada (including the one that fired him because they need that clickbait). He has said over again that “you people” meant “everybody”, that he stands firm for honouring Veterans, and most notably, “I could’ve stayed on if I wanted to and knuckled under, and turned into a simp, but that’s not my style." (CTV News)
From the perspective of this Canadian, I wouldn’t want Cherry to apologize for anything. We need more public figures with the style of ‘The Don’. How many actions has Don Cherry demonstrated to show how much of a stand-up Canadian he is? Actions speak louder than words, and his actions do not show evidence of racism. In the twenty-first century in Canada, virtue signalling is revered, and all these virtue signallers rarely show any kind of humanity or intelligence before jumping down the throat of their “victim of the day”. If you think Don Cherry deserved what he got but you voted for Justin Trudeau… you might be a piece of shit. #SorryNotSorry
The hypocrisy should slap you in the face when within forty-eight hours of the Don Cherry outrage, a Canadian talk show host makes a racist remark against Hockey Players and… crickets. No one is coming for Jess Allen because 1) No one watches The Social, 2) The prejudice remark Allen made was about “white” people, and 3) Conservatives don’t call for “Cancel Culture” because we believe in free speech (you just better be able to defend your racist ideas against the offended hockey community in Canada… good luck Jess!)
Finally, and maybe most importantly, the point to take away is HE IS NOT WRONG! Check out @joe_warmington tweet showing one of the busiest intersections in Canada and the lack of poppies worn just 2 days before Remembrance Day: https://twitter.com/joe_warmington/status/1193161573466071040?s=20
It is not just “New Canadians” not recognizing the sacrifice of our Veterans on Remembrance Day, plenty of Canadians forego wearing a poppy out of indifference, laziness, maybe even being too cheap to purchase one. Let me tell you, be warned. I personally will not stay silent about this lack of respect any longer. I will shame you if you will not wear a poppy. I don’t care what your skin colour is, at all, even a little. I will tell my own father he ought to be ashamed if he neglects to wear a poppy on his lapel (he does though).
Canadians should never forget the sacrifice that Veterans made because they believed in a better world. They believed in fighting real evil, not fighting political incorrectness behind the safety of a keyboard. Don Cherry refers to the ‘silent majority’ standing with him, but I am asking you to make yourself less silent and I vow to do the same. We must fight for our freedoms, stand up to the real prejudice and threats against our citizens, and make sure that the victims of the left-media-mob have an army of supporters standing beside them so they will continue to fight for what it means to be Canadian.
To Don Cherry: Thank you for your integrity, and for all the work you have done for Canadians of all backgrounds throughout your career, and I will be eagerly waiting for your next endeavour. #IStandWithDon
Global News interview with Don Cherry, post cancel
PressProgress article on disloyalty of The Royal Canadian Legion
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