Sylvia Burt, a military veteran, says she sides with sports host Don Cherry amid the controversy over his firing. Photo by Ryan Peddigrew, QNet News
BELLEVILLE – Hockey fans and veterans in Belleville and across the country have been debating whether Coach’s Corner star Don Cherry should have been fired over his comments on immigrants.
Cherry’s firing was announced Monday afternoon by Sportsnet amid an uproar over comments he made on Saturday’s broadcast about “you people” – immigrants to Canada – not wearing poppies in support of Remembrance Day.
At Belleville’s Royal Canadian Legion branch Monday, following the city’s Remembrance Day ceremony, QNet News talked to some veterans about the controversy.
Allan Miller, who served in the Canadian military for over 20 years, said he thinks Cherry should have been more mindful.
“Don Cherry was totally out of line,” Miller said.
“He established a difference between those coming more recently to Canada and those established Canadians,” he added. “Don Cherry is certainly out of line and if he is fired, so be it.”
But Sylvia Burt, another longtime member of the Canadian military, said she disagrees with the decision to fire Cherry.
“What happened to freedom of speech?” Burt said. “He said what he thought, and I totally agree with him. I do not think he should have been fired.”
She acknowledged, however, that Cherry could have been more careful in choosing his words.
Several other people at the post-Remembrance Day gathering whom QNet News spoke to about the controversy declined to give a comment with their names attached. The general tone of their comments, however, was supportive of Cherry. Aside from Miller, no one told QNet that they felt Cherry’s firing was justified.
Cherry’s firing ends a run of more than 35 years Coach’s Corner, a mainstay of Hockey Night in Canada. Though often a polarizing figure, Cherry has been a celebrity for decades. On Sunday night, his Coach’s Corner co-host, Ron MacLean, apologized on the air for not interjecting while Cherry was speaking.
In an interview Monday with Barb Digulio of the Newstalk 1010 radio station in Toronto, Cherry said he didn’t regret a thing.
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