Skip to content

Firing Don Cherry wrong

Canada is not supposed to be the kind of country where you must stifle your right to free expression
19357060_web1_letters-logo-1-660x440

Firing Don Cherry wrong

The recent firing of Don Cherry now throws into stark relief the dangerous fault lines that have been created in Canadian society by the ideological extremism of PC culture and the far left. Good. It is time for all of us to take a hard look at the effects of media bias, social engineering and the mob mentality of Twitter. If we do not take a look at them, then each of us could easily be the next one to lose our job, inadvertently endanger our family, or be imprisoned or isolated.

Don Cherry expressed his opinion. Did he do it strongly? Yes he did. Did he offend someone? Quite possibly. Is that a crime? Absolutely not. Canada is not supposed to be the kind of country where you must stifle your right to free expression (guaranteed us in the Charter by the way) to please the media mavens on CBC or CTV or appease the Twitter mob.

Yet here we are. The fact that Canadians are signing petitions in huge numbers to protest Don Cherry’s firing says much about us as a people. Many of us still understand what our freedoms and rights are all about. But increasing numbers of us also want to abandon the free society our forefathers fought for in exchange for some horror show of a nation reminiscent of East Germany or the Soviet Union.

Was Don Cherry wrong in what he said? That decision is up to you to determine. But what is not up for dispute is that no one should be prevented from expressing their point of view in a free society, and no one should lose their job or have their family endangered by doing so.

It is our opinion that Canada now stands at the threshold of a new and dangerous age in which there will be only one possible opinion to hold and only one way to express it. That opinion will be the viewpoint of Liberal progressive extremism.

It might be instructive for those who maintain the opinion that this is OK, to talk to some elderly immigrants who came to Canada from the Eastern bloc nations behind the former Iron Curtain. Ask them what life was like when there was only one correct opinion and not expressing it had dire consequences.

Should Canadians wear a poppy on Remembrance Day? Absolutely. Let’s hope they do. Should they be forced to? Of course not. But if they call themselves Canadians they should be proud to wear that poppy on their lapel. Should they ignore Canadian customs and holidays and create enclaves where Canadian customs and beliefs are ignored? Absolutely not.

Our nation has given much and sacrificed a lot. One day after Remembrance Day I reflect on my father’s service, a decorated tank commander in World War II. Did he fight for a world in which his sacrifice could be ignored or a veteran sportscaster could be fired for pointing that out? Definitely not.

Perry Foster

Duncan