Report: HNIC to retain Cherry's services
TSN.ca Staff with files
7/16/2004
The Globe and Mail reports that Hockey Night in Canada commentator Don Cherry will return to the weekly program for at least one more season.
Sources told the paper that the CBC will renew his contract for another season after he promised the network he would steer clear of political remarks.
Cherry, 70, has been no stranger to controversy in his 23-year run with the CBC, with the most recent incident happening after a tirade on visors during a January edition of Coach's Corner when he said most NHL players that wear visors are "European or French guys."
The CBC subsequently publicly reprimanded him for an "inappropriate and reprehensible personal opinion" expressed on air.
They also announced new measures to control his comments, instituting a seven-second tape delay for Coach's Corner.
Official Languages Commissioner Dyane Adam announced that she was launching a formal investigation into whether anti-francophone comments from Cherry reflect a systemic failure by the CBC to respect the Official Languages Act.
Said federal cabinet minister Denis Coderre after the visor comment: "It's time for Don Cherry to stop pushing French-Canadians around."
In another segment earlier this season, Cherry commented on reports of drug use among junior players, alleging that only players in the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League did drugs.
Last year, Cherry's on-air support for the war in Iraq was also considered provocative, and prompted the CBC to remove the segment from its website.
Cherry once landed in hot water for criticizing Olympic freestyle skier Jean-Luc Brassard, an Olympic and world champion whom he called "a French guy, some skier that nobody knows about." Cherry also got in trouble at Nagano for blasting Quebec in the wake of comments by Bloc Quebecois MPs that there were too many Canadian flags at various Olympic sites.
Files from CP and The Globe and Mail were used for this report
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``I'd love to have a pre-game skate tomorrow and be getting ready for Game 8,'' he said wistfully. ``It just makes me excited for training camp.''
- Shean Donovan, two days after losing Game 7 of the SCF
