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WARMINGTON: Don Cherry's son says Sportsnet wanted apology and more before firing

· Toronto Sun

In the days before Rogers Sportsnet fired Don Cherry in 2019, his son said his father was asked to go before the country and participate in what amounted to a humiliating communist-style struggle session to try to keep his job.

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While the Canadian refused to play their game, it turns out that before Don Cherry was fired from Hockey Night in Canada almost seven years ago he was given an ultimatum by Sportsnet executives to read an apology written for him to save his job.

And take a diversity training course.

The revelations come to light thanks to Tim Cherry, the son of the legendary star of Coach’s Corner , who was interviewed by the Can’t Be Censored podcast crew for an episode that is being released Wednesday on YouTube and Spotify.

In the 36-minute conversation between Tim, who produced Don Cherry’s Rock’em Sock’em Hockey videos with his father, and hosts Travis Dhanraj and Karman Wong, Tim said his then 85-year-old father was put in the impossible position by the brass after his “you people” rant on a broadcast before Remembrance Day.

 

‘Kept putting the hurdles in front of dad’

Tim said he was approached by two executives who wanted him to try to talk his dad into providing an on-air mea culpa.

“The first step they wanted to do is get dad to read a pre-written, lawyer-vetted apology and (I) said there is absolutely no way dad is going to do that,” Tim told Dhanraj and Wong.

Tim said he was told they didn’t “want this to ruin your father’s legacy”, to which he replied, “My God, you don’t understand if dad read this that would ruin his legacy.”

Instead, Don went out with his brand and his integrity intact . Sportsnet, meanwhile, fired a legendary patriot on Remembrance Day over a segment about people not sporting poppies to honour fallen soldiers.

“They just kept putting the hurdles in front of dad,” said Tim.

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Ron MacLean also thrown under the bus

In the end, according to Tim, they said, “All he had to do was apologize,” when there was apparently a lot more they were asking him to do behind the scenes. Tim said sidekick Ron MacLean was also thrown under the bus and managers allegedly let him “take the wrath” of loyal Coach’s Corner fans.

Sportsnet, the CBC and MacLean have not yet responded to requests for a comment on Tim’s accounting of the firing.

All these years later, Tim said the irony of the whole fiasco of the “you people” comment was ridiculous because “you people was what my mother (Rose) used to say to us” when she was mad. Tim said his father picked it up and used it for decades himself.

What Don wouldn’t say on air was a hostage script in front of his fans, while succumbing to these bullies rubbing his nose in the dirt in a cruel way by saying he needed the degradation of going to a politically correct sensitivity class.

Interesting scoop by Wong and Dhanraj, who left CBC himself after allegedly facing intimidation and attempts by senior leadership to silence him. (The CBC has denied those allegations.)

As for Don, who was recently honoured with the Order of Ontario by Premier Doug Ford , he’s now 92 and living his best life while getting ready for the Toronto Blue Jays’ MLB season and the NHL playoffs, where he can say anything he wants in front of his television and there is nothing those high-priced censors can do about it.

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