Noah Choi, Writer
Don Cherry is a famous ice hockey player, coach, commentator and an entertainer. He is known mostly for his work on the show “coach’s corner”. Coach’s corner is a part of the broadcast “Hockey Night in Canada” run by sportsnet. Don Cherry was the host of the show from its beginning in 1982. His partner John Mclean has been a side host for the show from 1986. They were known as close friends not just professionally but in their personal lives as well. He is known for his biases towards the teams that he likes such as the Boston Bruins since he played and coached for them. He showed his biases extensively unlike other commentators or entertainers. He was also known for all the controversial comments he made. He was faced with questions when he mocked european players in the NHL by saying
“Look at this, this is what we want our hockey players to act? Nowwatch Ovechkin (Russian ice hockey player), does this not remind you of it? Does he not remind you of a soccer player?”
Even though he said many offensive and controversial things, many people liked him for being himself in front of the camera.
Don Cherry was always extremely supportive of Remembrance day. He always talked about veterans and all the men and women who are sacrificing their lives for our safety. This led to his most recent controversy, where he said
“You people you come to Canada because you love our way of life, you love our milk and honey, at least you can pay a couple bucks for a poppy or something like that”
Don later said that he did not exclusively mean immigrants in his quote, but Canadians in general, he later explained his quote saying
“What I meant was everybody, everybody and I mean everybody should be wearing a poppy to honour our fallen soldiers who gave their lives for our way of life.”
He still stood by his statement that Canadians should wear poppies, even after he was fired from Coach’s Corner and refused to apologize. What he said while on the air was unacceptable and very poorly phrased, however his amended statement should be taken seriously, as we all should respect our veterans.
