Last years' Raiders in Brett Leason and Brayden Pachal swarm Warriors forward Tristan Langin during last year's WHL Suits Up with Don Cherry night. (Jeff D'Andrea/paNOW Staff)

By Jeff D'Andrea

No More Cherry

Column: League gets it right by distancing themselves from Don Cherry

Jan 16, 2020 | 3:17 PM

The Western Hockey League did a great job at not allowing the whole Don Cherry controversy to ruin a good cause.

After running the WHL Suits Up with Don Cherry to Promote Organ Donation for two years and raising $460,000 for kidney disease research in Canada, the WHL has still managed to keep the event going without any association to Cherry. They cut out his name and shifted the focus to Hockey Night in Canada as a whole.

Instead of the jerseys being a purposely tacky and outrageous suit-themed sweater to pay tribute to those glorious threads that Cherry used to wear on Coach’s Corner, the jerseys will now resemble the vintage powder blue Hockey Night in Canada blazer.

The Raiders will see the first look of the new jerseys as the Edmonton Oil Kings will ‘suit up’ for Friday’s game between the two clubs at Rogers’ Place.

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The Raiders themselves will hold their own game for the cause on Jan. 25 against the Medicine Hat Tigers, with the old Hockey Night in Canada logo to go along with the Raiders’ classic colours. They will be auctioned off like they usually are by the Raiders, with a $450 buy now online, starting at $250 until Jan. 24. Live auctions will be done after the game for any remaining jerseys, with all proceeds going to the Kidney Foundation.

This is exactly the move the league needed to do, keep the event for the good cause going while distancing themselves from Don Cherry and his controversial remarks around Remembrance Day.

And yes, they are controversial.

Had Cherry just simply asked for everybody to pitch in and purchase a few poppies from their local Royal Canadian Legion, I don’t think anybody would even blink an eye. I’d even argue that nobody would be offended by that, even in the ultra-politically correct culture we live in now.

But Cherry didn’t do that. He specifically targeted immigrants in his rant that eventually got him fired from Sportsnet.

“You people love—they come here, whatever it is. You love our way of life, you love our milk and honey. At least you could pay a couple of bucks for a poppy or something like that,” Cherry said in his rant.

This way of thinking assumes that every Canadian immigrant ‘that comes here’ to live doesn’t wear a poppy, which is extremely problematic. The statement also totally ignores those born in this country who don’t wear a poppy, which actually goes against the whole notion of getting more people wearing them in the first place.

And how is Cherry identifying who is and who isn’t an immigrant? Is he asking each person he sees that isn’t wearing a poppy from Nov. 1 to Nov. 11 if they were born in Canada or not?

Whether or not you agree with Cherry’s statement, or his dismissal from Sportsnet, it was a good move for the Western Hockey League to distance themselves from the controversy.

And they kept the charity initiative that’s raised close to $500,000 over the past two years in tact. It’s a win-win.

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Jeff.dandrea@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @jeff_paNOW