Source : National Post

Critics call move to put Coach's Corner on tape-delay an attack on free speech

TORONTO and OTTAWA - The CBC announced yesterday that all future episodes of Don Cherry's Coach's Corner will be broadcast on a seven-second tape-delay, a move denounced as the censoring of Canada's most outspoken sports figure.

The sudden change to the popular segment of Hockey Night in Canada follows weeks of controversy surrounding the abrasive host, who suggested that French-Canadian hockey players are weak because they wear visors.

CBC's decision to monitor Mr. Cherry's comments before they reach the airwaves was meant to put an end to the backlash, but it only added to what has become a national debate, with critics calling the move an attack on freedom of expression.

"This is pure and simple censorship," said Jim Abbott, the heritage critic for the Conservative Party of Canada.

In a statement released yesterday, Harold Redekopp, the executive vice-president of CBC Television, publicly reprimanded Mr. Cherry for his "inappropriate and reprehensible" remarks.

"CBC categorically rejects and denounces the personal opinions Mr. Cherry expressed during the segment," the statement reads. "Comments such as those expressed during the show cannot be repeated and will not be tolerated."

Mr. Redekopp insisted that a seven-second tape-delay is "common on many live broadcasts," and Ruth-Ellen Soles, a spokeswoman for the network, said Rex Murphy's Cross Country Check-Up radio show operates on a similar framework.

However, when contacted by the National Post last night, station employees in the radio and television divisions could not think of another single example, and one source noted the time delay is not used with live commentators because the station assumes there will be no need to guard against what someone might say.

Adding to the confusion, Ms. Soles could not provide details regarding what type of remarks will be deemed offensive and edited out of Mr. Cherry's show.

"That's something that we'll be working on," she said.

She said that senior managers, including Joel Darling, the executive producer of Hockey Night in Canada, would make that decision.

The next episode of Coach's Corner is scheduled for Feb. 14.

Since Jan. 24, when Mr. Cherry said the only players who wear visors are "European or French guys," his name has dominated newspaper headlines and radio talk shows.

While some Canadians have denounced his comments as racist (earlier this season he said that drug use in minor hockey is only rampant in the Quebec Major Junior League), others have rushed to his defence, noting that Mr. Cherry is notorious for his blunt and sometimes offensive quips.

His most recent remarks are also relatively tame, supporters say, for a man who in the past has called Quebecers "whiners" and lambasted the federal government for not joining the U.S.-led war in Iraq.

The latest debate over Mr. Cherry's mouth shifted to Ottawa this week, where the official languages commissioner launched an investigation into the CBC's apparent inability to uphold the Official Languages Act. The CBC ombudsman and the Canadian Broadcast Standards Council are also trying to get to the bottom of the remarks.

Inside and outside the House of Commons yesterday, MPs began to jump into the fray -- many of them demanding that Mr. Cherry be suspended.

Jean Augustine, Minister of State for Multiculturalism, said "the government will not tolerate statements that create dissonance in our society and disrespect for others."

"For too long Don Cherry has used contemptuous words, even racist ones, with respect to francophones on the airwaves of the CBC," said Benoit Sauvageau, a Bloc Quebecois member of Parliament.

"He should certainly be apologizing and maybe something more than that, who knows?" NDP leader Jack Layton told reporters.

"It's not a little gratuitous insult," he added. "He's making a fairly serious, nasty insult about the citizens of Quebec, their wonderful hockey stars, and I think it was disgusting. He's got some work that he's got to do to correct the situation and so do the people who employ him."

Denis Coderre, the Privy Council President and also the minister responsible for La Francophonie, said some of the greatest players in the NHL were French-Canadian.

"You go back to Aurel Joliat, to Maurice Richard, all those people," he said.

"Does that mean that because [former Montreal Canadiens goaltender] Jacques Plante had his nose broken and invented the goalie mask, that he is a wimp?"

Conservative MP Peter MacKay suggested Mr. Cherry's remarks were aimed at some people's "style of play, as opposed to anything to do with their language or national or ethnic origins."

Although he does not condone Mr. Cherry's comments, Mr. Abbott said the CBC has aired programs that are much more controversial.

"If they are going to be putting a seven-second delay on him, then I would presume that they must be thinking of putting a seven-second delay on This Hour Has 22 Minutes or Air Farce," he said of the network's most popular comedy shows.

"Those programs have comments that are highly offensive to different regions, highly offensive to different religions, highly offensive to many Canadians, yet CBC will carry them."

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