don cherry hazel mccallion

There's now a rally planned in Toronto to support Don Cherry

Former Mississauga mayor and fellow old white person "Hurricane" Hazel McCallion is showing her support for Don Cherry after his on-air poppy rant that got him fired from Sportsnet on Monday.

McCallion, who served as the city's mayor for 36 years until 2014, is one of many Cherry fans — which include the likes of Toronto Raptors superfan Nav Bhatia — who are dismayed at the problematic Canadian icon's departure from the long-running Hockey Night in Canada.

She is championing a rally calling for Don's reinstatement, slated to take place today outside of Rogers Communications-owned Sportsnet's headquarters (though she can't actually make it to the event).

The 98-year-old told Newstalk 1010 that despite the controversy, Cherry "does not have a racist bone in his whole body," seeming to be willfully ignorant of Cherry's history of remarks about left-wing pinkos, women and other people who are not Conservative white men.

The issue has been divisive, to say the least.

Cherry first stood by his controversial poppy comments, which censured immigrants for apparently not wearing them in honour of Remembrance Day, then backpedaled and clarified that he meant all Canadians (yes, white ones, too).

He then went on to sort-of-but-not-really apologize before appearing on notorious right-wing commentator Tucker Carlson's Fox News broadcast last night.

Today's pro-Cherry Rally, which is expected to draw crowds of hundreds, will commence at 1 p.m. at 1 Mount Pleasant Road.

Lead photo by

CBC


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