Juno News - November 18, 2019Don Cherry deserves much better than this
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Summary
Now that the dust has settled on the Don Cherry affair, and we've got the chance to pause and think, the more I'm hearing from readers, listeners, their anecdotes, their thoughts, personal stories about the whole Don Cherry mess, the more I really don't like how this has gone down, and it really makes you think something incredibly rotten and unfortunate and divisive has happened, not just to Hockey Night Canada viewers, sports fans, people who are part of an online mob, but really to the country in general.
Transcript
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Now that the immediate manic moment of this whole Don Cherry affair is behind us and the dust has
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settled a little and we've got the opportunity to sit back and pause and think and I'm hearing
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from a lot of readers, a lot of viewers, their anecdotes, their thoughts, personal stories about
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Don Cherry, things I'm hearing, the more I really don't like how this has gone down and the more
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it really makes you think something incredibly rotten and unfortunate and needlessly divisive has
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happened not just to Hockey Night Canada viewers, sports fans, people who are part of an online mob
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but really to the country in general because this whole Don Cherry affair, it wasn't like getting a
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sitcom cancelled or you know shaming a pop star for one of their you know poorly spoken online comments
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or what have you, this was very different because it involved Remembrance Day, it involved our troops,
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our veterans, it involved hockey, a sport that we hold very dear all across this country. This
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did not unfold the right way. Lots of problems, really unfortunate things and I've had a number
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of people tell me some different anecdotes. I had one reader write to me and say that they had a story
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where they had an experience where one of their relatives was very ill, was in the hospital and was
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dying and they got some message to Don Cherry saying hey it would be really nice if you could if you could
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take 90 seconds to pick up the phone and call him and say some words to him because he's been a fan of you
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for decades. Don Cherry didn't do that. He got in his car, he drove for 90 minutes two hours, it wasn't
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close to where Cherry lived, he went to the guy's deathbed and he sat beside him for a whole hour
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and talked to him about hockey and life. He didn't know this guy, he didn't get any money for this,
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he'd go wow and I start to hear more and more stories about this. A politician told me that a number
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of years ago before he got into politics he had a family business that had been around for generations
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and it was a big business for this small town in Ontario. It was a town of about 500 people and
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again this was a few hours from where Don Cherry lived and they said hey would it be possible to
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get you to to this anniversary whatever it was the 50th anniversary of the store and you know maybe we
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can work out an appearance sphere what have you. Don Cherry just nope got in the car drove over went there
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spent the afternoon with this small town and this really meant a lot not just to this family business but to
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everybody in this community and I'm hearing more and more stories about this the stuff this guy had
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done and then suddenly we go oh well here's one line he said and this word didn't work with that
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word we're really upset with all this so all right mob let's do our thing let's hound this guy no time
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to pause go get him take away things that matter to him just knock this guy while he's down. You can you
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can say that you had a problem with Don Cherry's comments and you know I've gotten a lot of feedback
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from people that that is not painting within the lines for instance I've heard with heard from
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gruff middle-aged white guy hockey dads who say no it was wrong he crossed the line get him the hell
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out of there I have heard from newcomers to Canada new immigrants who said two thumbs up they support
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everything Don Cherry said so it's not it's not a clean line here it's not it's not sort of easily
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defined camps and sides and all this different people have different opinions and that's okay I don't
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have a problem with that I have a problem with the manic feeding frenzy that unfolded now a lot
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of media went to his home the past few days in Mississauga and you might think that this is a guy
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because he's got the the fancy suits and so forth and you hear rumors he makes massive amounts of money
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and so on that this is going to be this big operation but media goes to his house and there's
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no there's no PR guy there's no bodyguard there's no team of lawyers corporate this and that there's no
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agent there's no manager this is just a guy in his 80s sitting in his basement and people are
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coming in the media is hounding him in his own home they're saying are you a racist and are you
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a this and a that that's kind of what's sad when you step back and look at this this is a guy who
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I'm sure he's not perfect I will say I'm not uh I'm not someone who's been watching hockey night
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in Canada every Saturday for years like some people in our country so it I don't have a personal sort
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of deep-rooted uh affiliation and fondness for this but when you just see you know this old guy
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who's been doing doing a lot of things a lot of good things for decades I'm sure he slipped up once
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or twice here and there and you say let's mob this guy let's destroy this guy over one line it's just
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not right and I think there's one thing he's owed at the very least what Don Cherry is owed
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is an opportunity to go out on his own terms say a few words say a couple minutes to the nation
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he's going to be aware of the gravity of the situation I I really think I really believe
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he'll rise to the occasion hopefully he can say some things to patch this up and then
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what the broadcasters owe him it's been interesting to watch that the sports broadcaster community they
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don't really have his back all of those people on air they're actually kind of turning on him
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I'm not sure why I'm not I'm in uh news media and political talk media I'm not a part of sports
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media it's been very interesting to watch that unfold I think they need to be able to honor him
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they need the the clip of b-roll showing up over the decades and say this guy is more than just
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this thing that he's got known for he's more than this a couple jumbled word salad sentences that were
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a total mess this guy's got a lot behind him he was a national icon he is owed that much very least
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his whole saga very sad very just wrong that this had to unfold and happen on remembrance day