Must-read: Cindy Cherry, Don Cherry’s late daughter, tells all in new book about her father and his cancellation

Cindy writes that after 38 years of compelling television, her father was cancelled simply for saying “you people love our milk and honey” and the “least you could do” is buy a poppy on Remembrance Day.

Hard to believe it’s been more than five years since the most highly viewed segment on Canadian TV was abruptly cancelled and its star maliciously thrown under the bus. All for no valid reason, well, other than cowardly corporate suits bending the knee to a tiny woke mob of leftwing zealots.

We speak of Don Cherry, the coach in Coach’s Corner.

Whether you loved or loathed Grapes, Coach’s Corner was must-see TV. Again, you either loved Don for his unvarnished honesty and frankness, which is an endangered species in the world of sports broadcasting today. Or you loved to hate Don Cherry, as you would love to hate an entertaining villain cutting promos in the bizarre biosphere that is professional wrestling.

The point is, millions of Canadians would tune into Hockey Night in Canada every Saturday night at approximately 7:50 p.m. E.S.T. Coach’s Corner was many things to many people. But it was never, ever boring.

We make mention of the cancellation of this cherished slice of Canadian culture thanks to the recent release of a new book entitled, The Don Cherry Story by His Daughter, Cindy Cherry.

Cindy Cherry doesn’t waste any time cutting to the chase. Thus, she begins the story at the end of the story. Namely, when her father’s tenure on network TV came to an abrupt and shocking end on November 9, 2019.

That first chapter is entitled “Poppygate” – which is a fitting term given that what happened to Don Cherry was indeed scandalous.

Cindy writes that after 38 years of compelling television, her father was cancelled simply for saying “you people love our milk and honey” and the “least you could do” is buy a poppy on Remembrance Day.

We have viewed that excerpt over and over and over again. We have analyzed Don’s words for any alleged racism or bigotry or xenophobia. And we come up empty every single time.

Indeed, Don Cherry was simply speaking the truth. You know it, we know it, everybody knows it. He was bemoaning that not enough people in Canada honour the war dead and our veterans come November 11. This is not conjecture; it’s the indisputable truth.

Indeed, on Remembrance Day 2019, the day Don was officially fired by the way, we visited Yonge-Dundas Square in downtown Toronto at 10 a.m. to observe how many people were wearing poppies. In other words, there we were at this busy intersection just 60 minutes before the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month. And we can tell you that less than 5% — yes, less than 5% — of passersby were wearing poppies that day. It was disgraceful, disgusting, and disrespectful. Oh no… was that a little harsh? Is Team Cancel Culture going to come for us now?

Yet, the fact that Don Cherry was cancelled for speaking the truth makes for more proof in the pudding that freedom of speech is on thin ice in Canada these days.

Due to political correctness, or its new name, “wokeness”, one is forbidden to speak the truth IF the truth hurts. That’s not freedom of speech — that’s censorship.

Indeed, Don’s words somehow hurt the feelings of the uber-intolerant left. Or more accurately, these wokesters pretended to suffer from hurt feelings. Finally, these Marxists had some flimsy excuse to derail the career of a common sense patriotic Canadian that they loathed because of… oh, we don’t know… toxic masculinity?

And let’s not forget the role of one particular liberal in this saga, namely Ron “The Rat” MacLean. Indeed, if Don’s words were so repugnant, then why didn’t Ron object? Rather, as Cindy Cherry notes, Ron was “bobbing his head in agreement throughout the dialogue, gave Dad the thumbs-up and at the end said, ‘love you for it.’”

Furthermore, Cindy notes: “HNiC repeated this Coach’s Corner for their central Canadian viewers. How bad could they have felt it was if they rebroadcasted it?”

But no, the cowardly suits at Rogers — caved to the vocal minority and quickly pulled the plug on Coach’s Corner.

And when they did, Ron MacLean could’ve and should’ve taken a stand. He could’ve and should’ve said words to the effect of, “Hey, if Don goes, I go.” But then again, that would have made for a principled stand. And second banana rats aren’t all that concerned about principles, not when there’s a juicy six-figure salary on the line. It’s just business, baby.

To add insult to injury, MacLean appeared the following Saturday to make a groveling apology. And soon thereafter Hockey Night in Canada went woefully woke in terms of the content aired between periods. It was insufferable and unwatchable.

In the days that followed this cancellation, Cindy became further upset about the spin Poppygate was receiving. She writes: “The narrative that Rogers/Sportsnet and Ron put out to the rest of the media was that all Don had to do to keep his job was apologize and he wouldn’t. This is what a lot of the corporate media shills and people on social media jumped on—why didn’t Don just say he’s sorry and then he would have gotten back his job?”

But Cindy says that narrative was completely bogus; that the fix was always in. She further writes: “To me, there was no doubt Rogers wanted Dad gone, so they backed him into a corner knowing he wouldn’t kneel to their demands. I believe many people knew there was more to the story about Dad’s firing but didn’t bother looking into it and just went with the corporate narrative.”

In fact, it should be noted that it was never Cindy’s intention to write a book even though she always had a ringside seat when it came to being near her famous father. But there came a point during this raging controversy when she simply couldn’t take the B.S. any longer. She had to set the record straight. And for that, we owe her a debt of gratitude.

Alas, it’s too bad the Cindy Cherry never got to see the fruits of her labour. Cindy passed away last July at the age of 67 after a brief illness. This was very hard on Don.

Regardless, her legacy is a book that dispels the lies and myths that the left and the cowards at Rogers concocted when it comes to the Don Cherry saga. We owe her a debt of gratitude for setting the record straight about this great Canadian.

Of note, Don Cherry is 91 years old. At this point, we must wonder how long this national treasure will remain with us. We can tell you this much: when Don passes, millions of Canadians will mourn that day. Some speculate Ron will be remembered as a backstabber and a betrayer, whereas Don spoke his mind, told the truth, and stood by his principles even when threatened with career cancellation — which did indeed come to fruition.

One final thought: Don Cherry was and remains immensely popular. And once upon a time, he was responsible for the single most watched segment of TV in the nation. He was a cash cow when it came to attracting advertisers and sponsors. Thus, in the final analysis, the really disturbing thing about his unceremonious cancellation is this: if the powers-that-be can cancel Don Cherry, they can cancel anyone.
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