The firing of hockey commentator Don Cherry by Sportsnet, a a TV channel owned by Canadian communications and media company Rogers Communications, has elicited thousands of online comments from users calling for a responsive boycott.
Breitbart News reported on Monday:
Leftists in Canada succeeded in getting Canadian hockey icon Don Cherry fired after he made comments about the lack of poppies worn for Remembrance Day by recent immigrants in Ontario.
The 85-year-old hockey veteran was fired on Remembrance Day by broadcaster Sportsnet after comments made over the weekend.
During the “Coach’s Corner” segment of Sunday’s Hockey Night in Canada for a game between the Toronto Maple Leafs and Philadelphia Flyers — a segment Cherry has hosted for nearly four decades — Cherry described a scarcity of poppies worn by immigrants in Mississauga, a suburb of Toronto, on Remembrance Day and the month of November:
Comment that got Don Cherry fired:
“People … come here, whatever it is, you love our way of life, you love our milk & honey. At least you can pay a couple of bucks for poppies .. These guys pay for your way of life that you enjoy in Canada. These guys pay the biggest price." pic.twitter.com/QWoQPaiY47
— Tom Elliott (@tomselliott) November 11, 2019
On Tuesday, Twitter saw the hashtags #BoycottRogers and #BoycottSportsnet trending in Canada. Support for Cherry was also found with the #IStandWithDonCherry and #CherryWasRight hashtags.
Cancel culture just took another victim. This time a Canadian icon and cherished national voice, over an untrue Leftist smear. #IStandWithCherry
— Candice Malcolm (@CandiceMalcolm) November 11, 2019
I’m an immigrant. He said nothing racist and only spoke his opinion and a truthful one at that! #IStandWithCherry
— ricardo (@ricksvelo) November 10, 2019
Piling on an 85-year-old legend for encouraging patriotism and remembrance while city tolerates becoming a war zone by bowing to political correctness to take away living-saving tools from police. So many innocent people have been murdered and you are worried about Don Cherry? https://t.co/jD5F6nH8o9
— Joe Warmington (@joe_warmington) November 10, 2019
See ya Sportsnet. Cancelled. Done. #BoycottSportsnet #IStandWithCherry pic.twitter.com/WQkCBcjCMJ
— Jennifer Gould (@msjengould) November 11, 2019
An online petition launched by Rebel News has yielded over 65,000 signatures as of this article’s publication.
Assorted leftists decried Cherry’s comments as “xenophobic” and “racist.”
Cherry has steadfastly stood by his comments.
“I know what I said, and I meant it. Everybody in Canada should wear a poppy to honor our fallen soldiers,” Cherry told the Toronto Star on Monday, adding, “To keep my job, I cannot be turned into a tamed robot.
“I don’t regret a thing,” Cherry continued. “If you notice, I never said ‘immigrants,’ I never said anything, I said, ‘you people’ and they could have been Scottish, they could have been Irish, they could have been anything, but that’s the way the world is today. They listened to those people.”
In 2010, Cherry paid a surprise visit to Canadian armed forces stationed in Afghanistan on Christmas Day.
Follow Robert Kraychik on Twitter @rkraychik.
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