No. It absolutely exists everywhere, as the firing of Cherry can attest to...

When I referenced "crap", I meant a government run by guys like Trump.
- rmull905

He certainly does have a unique coloring and hair style. #MAGA

Only in Canada do we hold a sports commentator more accountable than our own Prime Minister.


Trudeau is aweful too but at least he owned it and apologized
I would also point out Trudeau was young and dumb and
in college
Don is 85 and should not better
He should put on his big boy pants and realize sometimes being an adult is not always saying what your thinking

...he was entertaining and will be missed

I am a Flyers fan in Virginia. As an American, I have no particular attachment to Don Cherry. I watched DC's comments in their entirety 3x on DVR. The most that reasonably may be said is that his comments were politically incorrect. But the idea that a hockey man of his stature could lose his job over such comments says a lot more about sports media cowardice in the face of the Twitter mob than it does about DC's character.
- Kensington23

It is more than that IMO. This is just sort of the final straw. This isnt the first time he has said something controversial and he lacks the ability to think before he speaks. Sportsnet didnt even want the guy back this year. This is 100%, "hey look we have a reason to fire him now". His segments we garbage anyways. He is just your stereotypical 85 year old senile old man who just rambles on about nothing. Guy should have been let go long ago.

It's a pretty fine line between racist and xenophobic, but either way, most people are educated enough to know the difference and say xenophobic. Not everyone understands the difference though.
- prock

IDK. I have always considered xenophobia to be extreme racism.

To all those people that have so gleefully jumped on the "Lets vilify Don Cherry" bandwagon, ask yourself this one simple question, "How much did you pay for your poppy this year?"
- tornado24

It's a garbage question, because we all know the darn things have been designed to jump off your collar within 30 minutes of being put on.

You need to ask people how much they paid for their poppies this year?

[quote=Koots 33]

Its also not the same thing. He was elected as a lesser evil

It's a pretty fine line between racist and xenophobic, but either way, most people are educated enough to know the difference and say xenophobic. Not everyone understands the difference though.
- prock

There actually is a pretty big difference between racist and xenophobic and it's not okay to just labelled him racist because "uneducated people" don't know the difference. You're inferring something that is not true or atleast something unproven. I'm not saying xenophobia is a good thing but to say Don Cherry dislikes people because the color of their skin is irresponsible.

IDK. I have always considered xenophobia to be extreme racism.
- Tonybere

If you're American and you hate Russia thats xenophobia. Is it racist?

Don Cherry refused to apologize, so here we are.
- Atomic Wedgie

and losing our minds over it and interpreting what he said as if it was some biblical passage .

The question we should be asking is , has the Canadian government done enough to raise awareness and the importance of the poppy to immigrants but also the younger generation of Canadians.

Sure but to paint him as a racist is unfair. Nationalist or xenophobic sure but there's no proof that he is racist.
- HealthyScratch6

It's not a far leap from xenophobic to racist, and it's also fair to say he's more than toed the line in the past:

In 2004 he said players who wear protective visors are “Europeans and French guys,” and that they are more likely to high stick. This prompted CBC to slap a seven-second time delay on him.

Cherry has also criticized players from Russia. In an undated clip, he said, “they’re nothing. They’re nothing. N-O-T-H-I-N-G.”

When two Russian skiers tested positive for drugs at the Salt Lake City Olympics: “I’ve been trying to tell you people for so long about the Russians, what kind of people they are, and you just love them in Canada with your multiculturalism. They’re quitters and evidently they take a lot of drugs, too.”

He referred to the genocidal wars in the Balkans of the 1990 as “Lower Slobovia attacking Slimea.”

Bottom line, the guy is a relic, his podium should have been taken away years ago.

Everyone is missing the point here, including you, Ek.

It wasn't Sportsnet that said 'you people', it was Don Cherry. He may represent Sportsnet in that he is an employee, but for years and years he said what he was thinking, not what CBC or Sportsnet was thinking. People tuned in for coach's corner to get insight into what Don Cherry, hockey legend, thought. It is, and always was, an opinion segment. Very rarely did he even discuss the current game being broadcast for more than a minute. He always wanted to show a highlight of his favourite players, show a lowlight of guys he didn't like, give his opinion on a current sports story, or a political story. Ron was there to make it clear that the sometimes extreme views of the Coach on Coach's corner were clearly not shown to be representative of anyone other than Don.

Sometimes, some people are more interesting than others, and while their opinions are no more valuable, listening to their opinions is more interesting. Networks and news papers and websites give these people blogs, columns, or tv segments to discuss their personal opinions. That's what Coach's Corner was, an opinion segment. If Don didn't have strong controversial opinions, it wouldn't have been Coach's Corner.

Do I agree with Cherry? Nope. I understand where he is coming from, though I'm not a big military supporter myself. I think his mini-rant doesn't exactly speak for politically correct people or myself. But that's okay! Opinions are what makes Canada and the USA great nations, and the right to have them. If I can only have an opinion within the boundaries agreed upon by the majority, then that's not really freedom.

You may say Cherry is free to have his opinions, but Sportsnet is free to fire him, but I disagree. If a network gives you an opinion segment, you voice your opinion, and then you get fired, that is censorship of an opinion. This wasn't a comment made by Jim Hughson during the play by play. This was an opinion (a controversial one) on a segment designed to be about controversial opinions.

It's a very scary road we are headed down, where people are fired for voicing opinions, or for allegations of misconduct without ever being proven guilty. The mob rules now, and it finds someone outside the pack and goes for blood. As soon as they bleed, the mob is on to the next outlier.

It's not a far leap from xenophobic to racist, and it's also fair to say he's more than toed the line in the past:

In 2004 he said players who wear protective visors are “Europeans and French guys,” and that they are more likely to high stick. This prompted CBC to slap a seven-second time delay on him.

Cherry has also criticized players from Russia. In an undated clip, he said, “they’re nothing. They’re nothing. N-O-T-H-I-N-G.”

When two Russian skiers tested positive for drugs at the Salt Lake City Olympics: “I’ve been trying to tell you people for so long about the Russians, what kind of people they are, and you just love them in Canada with your multiculturalism. They’re quitters and evidently they take a lot of drugs, too.”

He referred to the genocidal wars in the Balkans of the 1990 as “Lower Slobovia attacking Slimea.”

Bottom line, the guy is a relic, his podium should have been taken away years ago.
- rmull905

These are all examples of xenophobia. If you want to say that he was fired for being xenophobic then fine. It's just dishonest to say he was being racist. There's no way to know that he was singling out any particular race. People use the term racist because it's a buzz word.

IDK. I have always considered xenophobia to be extreme racism.
- Tonybere

There really isn't much difference.

I think Rogers has every right to fire him but it is funny that they were cool with letting him rant about off-topic things in the past, if they only told him to stick to hockey in the first place then it never would’ve gotten to this point.

I don’t watch Sportsnet to hear someone talk about society and politics.

What’s next? The weather man deciding to skip over his forecast for the week to talk about how his fantasy football team did this week? Free speech, right??!?

If you're American and you hate Russia thats xenophobia. Is it racist?
- HealthyScratch6

If you're American and you hate Russians you're xenophobic too. Hating someone because they were born in Russia vs hating someone because their skin is black.

It really isn't much different.

If you're American and you hate Russia thats xenophobia. Is it racist?
- HealthyScratch6

All racists are xenophobic, but not all xenophobes are racist.

There actually is a pretty big difference between racist and xenophobic and it's not okay to just labelled him racist because "uneducated people" don't know the difference. You're inferring something that is not true or atleast something unproven. I'm not saying xenophobia is a good thing but to say Don Cherry dislikes people because the color of their skin is irresponsible.
- HealthyScratch6

colour of skin vs location of birth. Both things are out of one's control. It's really not that different.

There really isn't much difference.
- prock

The difference is xenophobia has nothing to do with race and racism has everything to do with race.

Eklund: An American Hockey Writer's Thoughts on Don Cherry...Yours? Buzz@1
- Eklund

"You may not know this, but I have a policy with my writers to not write about politics on Hockeybuzz."

I was unaware you let Tanner go

"You may not know this, but I have a policy with my writers to not write about politics on Hockeybuzz."

I was unaware you let Tanner go
- homiedclown

colour of skin vs location of birth. Both things are out of one's control. It's really not that different.
- prock

I'm not saying either are good or okay I'm just saying there's a difference between being critical of an ideology or culture represented by a large population and being critical of someone because they look different. Either way there are good people from all walks of life and I think labeling people by religious affiliation, skin color, sexual orientation or nationality is dangerous and causes more harm.

Hey Ek, you said "What Cherry did here made Canadiens feel like they weren't watching CBC, but rather coverage they'd see on an American news network." Are you referring to Fox and are you equating the two? You also stated that "And beyond their common sense of decency looking like America on immigration is an implication Canadiens couldn't stomach." If that is the case, why are there 60 million Hispanics in the U.S. and only around 1 million in Canada? If Canada really wanted to look like America on immigration they would need to let 5.5 million more Hispanics into the country. That would put the Hispanic population at 18%, just like the U.S. Until that happens, I don't know how you can say they have some kind of moral high ground!!

I don't think his comments reach that level.

But in a free society, provided they're not using those rallies to promote and plan actual violence, yes those examples are OK in the sense they're allowed.

That's the problem with free speech, defending it when everyone agrees with you is easy, it's when they don't that it gets hard.

That way the tyranny of the mob doesn't win out.
- gcomella34

That's the thing though. This has NOTHING to do with free speech. Free speech simply means you can say what you want (with some limitations - ie hate speech, inciting a riot, yelling fire in a theater , etc) without fear of retribution from the government. Freedom of Speech does NOT protect you from backlash from the public or your employer. You can say what you want, but speech is action and actions can have consequences.