On November 11th yearly Canada reflects on wars past and present, so does member countries of the Commonwealth since this was a reminder of the sacrifices made by soldiers past and present since the First World War, for our present peace and freedoms. Typically leading up to the two seconds silence on the eleventh hour on the eleventh day, are a range of remembrance activities such as published stories to evoke memories of struggles and sacrifices and the sale of poppies to benefit veterans. This year, we have Don Cherry to thank for a different kind of “lest we forget” memory lane. He took us on a journey of remembrance of discrimination in the form of minimizing and erasing the experiences of those who are observably immigrants in his attempt to encourage more poppy sales. This occurred during his Coach’s Corner segment of “Hockey Night in Canada” on Saturday, November 9. He said that: “…I live in Mississauga nobody wears a poppy, downtown Toronto, … nobody wears a poppy “… you people loved, …that come here, whatever it is … you love our way of life, you love our milk and honey, at least you can pay a couple bucks for a poppy or something like that…” The swift social media response by those who found his comment offensive, divisive and discriminatory may have led to apologies that began the following morning. First by co-host Ron Maclean, Sportsnet, and the National Hockey League.
Don Cherry himself remained silent until he was fired by Rogers and Sportnet midday on Monday, Remembrance Day. His response remains telling, according to Joe Warmington Don Cherry was of the view that his aforementioned comment was not racial or bigoted just patriotic and respectful of fallen soldiers. “I know what I said and I meant it. Everybody in Canada should wear a poppy to honour our fallen soldiers… I speak the truth and I walk the walk,…To keep my job, I cannot be turned into a tamed robot,” said Cherry. By the evening of the same day, he was seeking an inserting the word “everybody” where he made references to “you people”.
This raises several issues including the level of racial literacy and by implication racial socialization for him and those who support his position. Clearly, his comment and his refusal to apologise became the subject of discussion not the veteran issues for which poppy sales monies are needed. This type of distraction typically attends our public discourse and in so doing frustrate productive dialogue, once race and racism becomes at issue. Jessica Swietoniowski’s supports Don Cherry’s position. It is worth noting that she is also associated with Rebel Media. She noted that as a White immigrant from Poland the entire episode leading to the job loss, illustrated “political correctness and cancel culture [that] have taken leaps forward while moving us, a free society, backwards. That people are scared to speak honestly or have different views. Even the slightest amount of patriotism can be construed as racism or white supremacy … not even a beloved Canadian sports host can escape the outrage culture we live in…” This response is typical and deserves unpacking. Suffice to say at this point that “honesty doesn’t mean saying everything you think, but thinking everything you say” (African Proverb).
We have an opportunity here to elevate this conversation to facilitate the need to reflect more on what we have said and are about to say. After all, “until the lions tell their tale, the story of the hunt will always glorify the hunter” (African Proverb). The first sentence in our Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedom noted that the country is founded on the principles that recognizes the supremacy of God and the rule of law. As Christians or those who profess to be, we are aware or ought to be aware that the daily improvement encouraged by the gospel of Jesus Christ centres around giving due regard to the greatest commandments to express our love to God, ourselves and our neighbours. Love is certainly the most misunderstood concept in modern life, yet in first Corinthians 13, we learn that love is charity, embodying truth, faith, hope, respect, kindness and perseverance. This means it seek selflessness and not easily provoked. Now this is a tall order for the best of us. So, in the spirit of striving for a more excellent way of treating one another, what are some of the lessons from our collective experience of the events leading up to Don Cherry’s firing by Rogers and Sportsnet on Remembrance Day despite his over 35 years as a Hockey Night in Canada’s Coach Corner segment co-host?
Our social environment shapes us in positive and negative ways. It is not surprising that we routinely nurture our children for them to learn and cultivate the notion that their actions have natural and/or societally imposed consequences. It is my hope that people are not scared of expressing honest or different views, as Jessica Swietoniowski alleges, in a society like ours, where we are constantly striving to sustain our democracy. The rules of engagement are quite clear and in its’ most simplistic form all we need to do is turn to the first sentence of our beloved Charter of Rights and Freedom states: “principles that recognize the supremacy of God and rule of law”, and love as espoused by the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Therefore, are people really scared to speak because they are intent on communicating hate and/or want to be free of the consequences? What do we know about the meaning of love and its’ expression? What are we actually teaching the next generation about loving one another? Consequently, to what extent is our society actually free and for whom? What is racism or white supremacy?
A useful description of the nature of race and racism is to be found in the American Academy of Pediatrics’ 2019 policy statement entitled: “the impact of racism on child and adolescent health”. We all know that although race, racism and white supremacy are rooted in our collective history that dates back over four hundred year, yet we remain shackled by its’ reality daily. Mostly because the white implementer did a great job in mainstreaming it into all aspect of our lives including our psychic and institutional structures. Racism is essentially a two sided coin simultaneously assigning unfair disadvantages some groups of people and unfair advantage to consistently the same group, usually white people or those who could pass for whites. It is an established and mature web of systems structured to provide opportunity and assign values based on the social interpretation originally based on how people look (their race). Through a process of racialization groups of people are added or removed from the disadvantaged group, although some groups have consistently remained in the disadvantage group in hand, and the advantageous group on the other.
Racism can be experienced individually or internally, interpersonally, vicariously, collectively, systemically or institutionally as well as trans-generationally. Despite scientific advancement of the concept that we are one human race, societal focus continues to perpetuate racial disparities instead of preventing the social conditions that promtes racism. Don Cherry’s action amounts to micro invalidation, a type of racial micro-aggression (Sue, 2007). Don Cherry was not fired for defending the poppy and our veterans, he was fired for making a mistake in the process and refusing to apologise. His mistake was his exclusionary remarks. He now acknowledges a mistake but attributes it to saying “you people” instead of “everybody”. Really? Let’s trying inserting everybody into his comment and see if it works: “…I live in Mississauga nobody wears a poppy, downtown Toronto, … nobody wears a poppy “… [everybody] loved, …that come here, whatever it is … you love our way of life, you love our milk and honey, at least you can pay a couple bucks for a poppy or something like that..”
That does not work. For one, everybody did not come here. We certainly do not talk about our First Nations neighbours in a way that suggest that the came here, they were already here. Overall, inserting “everybody” to replace “you people” does not work with his observational stance of those he says as he is out and about in his neighbourhood and downtown Toronto that come here: it just does not work with the rest of the sentence. There’s is no misinterpretation here, yet being racially literate would resolve such reoccurring misunderstanding and confusion.
Like, Jessica Swietoniowski, I, Ufuoma Odebala-Fregene, am also a proud immigrant. I am a first-generation immigrant from the United Kingdom, with a Nigerian heritage who is now Canadian. I emigrated as a parent and, like most parents, I take the responsibility of raising my children to fully integrate into Canadian society seriously. Like most immigrants, I love Canadian way of life, that’s why I came and remained. However, unlike White immigrants, the sting of discrimination or racism follows me and those that look like me everywhere. We are of African Descent and are often referred to as Black. While White immigrants have the luxury to be invisible immigrants in time, sixth generation Blacks are still referred to as immigrants. The moniker of being an immigrant is ever present. Even a Social Work text such as Ives, N., Denov, M., and Stevenson, T. (2015). Introduction to Social Work in Canada: Histories, Context and Practices shares immigrant experiences that are confined to the experiences of about everyone else except White immigrants.
The permanent immigrant status held by Black people carries with it, negative implications, a type of racism, that means they are never seen or treated as Canadians. This second-class citizenship status negatively impacts their economic participation and by extension all other areas of their social participation. It would be interesting to hear from a White immigrant who says that he or she, as a first-generation immigrant is dealing with these types of exclusion after a couple of years. Again, a free society! Free for who?
Democracy is not just a numbers game, in this context, it is also addressing the need to dismantle over 400 years of ever morphing racism that needs to stop.
Jessica Swietoniowski, Rebel Media, 239,163 change.org petitioners and others petitioning supports of a version of honesty that is void of personal reflections, continue to spread the message of politically incorrectness. What is politically incorrect about developing racial self-efficacy in a country that is built on the principles of love? A country that is relying on each one of us to express such a love to one another in ways that heals and promotes oneness. We all have obligations within Canadian democracy and need to develop the racial literacy and socialization skills that enables us to recognize, reframe and productively resolve racial conflicts. It is time for diffcult actions in responses to racial incidents. Often all that is required is a timely apology. Don Cherry was to proud to give one. At this point, it is irrelevant whether or not he meant what he said, the effect remains the same. Those in positions of influence such as Don Cherry should indeed strive for honesty and do so more by reflecting deeply before opening their mouth. Whoever “you people” might be, they have a Canadian heritage of veterans, soldiers as well as purchasers and wearers of poppies, much the same way as White invisible immigrants – the two sided coin of racism. The historically marginalized and their allies can no longer stay silenced. It is time for the lion to tell their stories of the hunt. We are bleeding the hunt has to stop!
You still think this was unfair? Let’s bring it home!
A parallel ongoing conversation about fairness is that taking place in Alberta culminating with Premier Jason Kenney’s announcement of a “Fair Deal Panel”. He charged the panel with identifying Alberta’s leverage opportunities within Canadian Confederation. He was of the view that our five year long and ongoing economic decline and stagnation deepened and prolonged due to policies by the federal government and some provinces, such as Quebec. The panel’s mandate is noticeably daring, yet we have a population of just 
over 4 million compared to Quebec’s 8.49 million and Ontario’s 14.57 million. It is worth pointing out that the Premier also noted that Albertans feels an “unprecedented level of frustration”, suggesting an ever present status quo of Alberta’s frustration with the rest of Canada. As an Albertan, I know. In the Canadian context Alberta is roaring like a lion. Nobody is even suggestion that this political correctness. The lion do need to tell their story of the hunt. That is what those who feel the bite of historical and contemporary racism withthe support oftheir allies are doing right now, they are roaring.
This Alberta’s brand of identity politics of us versus them, does not exclude the ever present ongoing “them within us” racism. It does not, racism still thrives in Alberta.
Overall though, marginalized individuals, groups or Provinces display their displeasure in a democracy in the midst of everyone trying to exercise their freedom of speech. Racial reconciliation in Canada will remain a distant dream without racial equity literacy and the racial realism and racial reconstruction that comes with it. Democracy is not just a numbers game, in this context, it is also addressing the need to dismantle over 400 years of ever morphing racism that needs to stop. We can do better in our efforts to express love to ourselves and one another. A key lesson here is to expand our notion of love and with this in mind develop our racial competencies. That’s the pathway to improving our connections with one another. “Connection is the energy that exist between people when they feel seen, heard and valued; when they can give and receive without judgment; and when they derive substance and strength from the relationship” (Brene Brown). We all need this, not just some of us, all of us. Phrases like “political correctness”, “honest expressions” or “I’m not my ancestors” will not solve societal racial challenge.
Like Premier Jason Kenney, “all we are asking is a bit of fairness, we are not asking for a special deal”. Let’s develop and use the competencies to truly listen to understand and connect, lest we forget.