Don Cherry speaks for first time since firing: 'I don't regret a thing'

Tommy McArdle

•
Don Cherry speaks for first time since firing: 'I don't regret a thing' image

Monday's Remembrance Day holiday brought the news of Don Cherry's departure from 'Hockey Night in Canada' .

Tuesday brought Cherry's response.

The longtime hockey analyst and pundit did several interviews in the hours after his firing was made official. In one, he indicated he "said the wrong thing" when it came to his  comments about immigrants on Nov. 9's 'Coach's Corner' broadcast , but in another, he said that his message was spot-on with his beliefs , adding, "I don’t regret a thing."

Cherry, 85, told CityNews on Tuesday afternoon that if he were able to take his usual spot on 'Coach's Corner' this coming Saturday, he would apologize for his choice of words during a rant in which he called immigrants "you people" while criticizing those who do not buy poppies, as is tradition leading up to and on Remembrance Day.

“I meant 'everybody,'" Cherry told reporter Adrian Ghobrial. "But I said the wrong thing. ... Everybody, that’s what I meant. I thought Ron would come back and say something, but he didn’t say anything. I didn’t think it was that bad, and when I left that night, nobody said anything. It was the next day that they talked about it and the whole deal.”

Cherry also claimed, as he did in interviews with CTV News Toronto and Global News , that he would have clarified his comments if Sportnet had allowed him to do 'Hockey Night in Canada' this coming weekend. But he said his promise to do that "wasn't enough" for Sportsnet.

The Toronto Star on Tuesday published an interview with Cherry that reportedly happened during Monday night's NHL games — just hours after the news of Cherry's firing first broke. In that interview, Cherry told reporter Kevin McGran he could have stayed in his role if he "wiped the floor with myself, and returned as a tamed person."

"I don’t regret a thing," Cherry said. "I said what I said, I meant what I said and I believe everybody — everybody — in this country should wear a poppy, and buy a poppy to support the families of the servicemen, and that’s the way I feel."

When Cherry was asked whether he recognized that his "you people" remarks were seen as targeted toward immigrants, Cherry responded in a firm manner.

"Absolutely, and they’re the people who jumped all over it," Cherry told the Star. "If you notice, I never said ‘immigrants', I never said anything, I said, ‘you people’ and they could have been Scottish, they could have been Irish, they could have been anything, but that’s the way the world is today. They listened to those people. They don’t listen to the people that called [me] today. I got calls from generals today. It’s the old story again, they listen to the people. And good people like the generals, and that, and soldiers and that phone me but they won’t phone Sportsnet. That’s the way the world is today. You know it and I know it."

The Mississauga, Ont. native also expressed disappointment in how co-host Ron MacLean handled the aftermath of Saturday's broadcast, saying his longtime friend "buried me."

No matter what interview Cherry did between Monday evening and Tuesday, one theme remained constant — he knows he can't go back and change what he said.

“Yes, I wish I had said ‘everybody,'" Cherry told CityNews. "But there’s nothing you can do about it — I didn’t use it, and you can’t go back, can’t say ‘wish’… I did it, and I’m paying the price.”

Tommy McArdle