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Don Cherry lambastes 'left media' after NHL anthem singer's firing
The year is 2020 and Don Cherry still, unsurprisingly, has a lot to say.
What brought the former long-time Hockey Night in Canada personality out of his cave this time was the Vancouver Canucks’ firing of anthem singer Mark Donnelly after he was booked to perform “O Canada” at an anti-mask rally — the BC Christmas Freedom Rally 2020 — this past weekend.
In an interview with the Toronto Sun, Cherry predictably lambasted the “left media” while playing the martyr-for-free-speech role he’s grown so accustomed too over the years.
“When you give your opinion, you better be prepared to pay the price,” Cherry told the Sun’s Joe Warmington.
“Going to a ‘no-mask rally’ was not the politically correct thing to do. You have to do what the left media want now. I should know.”
Cherry does indeed know all too well what can happen when a private telecommunications company — one who reserves the right to revoke your on-air privileges as it deems fit — decides you’re too much of a liability to continue working in a prominent role on one of their main networks. The now 86-year-old was terminated from Rogers Sportsnet last November after his infamous “you people” rant landed Rogers in hot water with sponsors and yielded a tsunami of negative backlash toward the network and the NHL.
Since then, Cherry has found his way in the podcasting world where he’s free to riff on and ramble about whatever he wants without the restrictions (and large paychecks) he was forced to deal with for nearly 40 years with the CBC and Sportsnet.
The former ratings machine and one of Canada’s more controversial public figures over the past couple decades is convinced that Donnelly was fired not for speaking out on a polarizing issues such as masks and lockdowns, but for speaking out on the wrong side of them.
“Would Mark Donnelly be in trouble expressing his opinion had it been in favour of masks and lockdowns?” Asked Cherry.
Aside from the alleged free-speech suppression, Grapes also notes another possible reason for Donnelly’s termination: becoming more popular than the owner of the entity that employs you.
Cherry did acknowledge the cruel reality of business and the power that Canucks owner Francesco Aquilini wields in all of this, saying “He’s the owner and he can do what he likes. He’s the boss,” before hinting that it was really Aquilini’s ego steering the ship through all of this.
“He was becoming a pretty big star,” said Cherry. “You have to be careful because you can be stealing somebody else’s limelight.”
You can’t “go against left-wing media’s rules” or “be more popular than the owner.” Of these two things, Cherry is quite convinced.
According to Warmington, Donnelly — the decorated, longtime Canucks anthem singer famous for letting the home crowd take over for parts of the Canadian anthem — is “already busy” following his firing, currently working on the Holy Family Parish Vancouver congregation livestream.
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