Don Cherry howled. The country yowled.

And now the gruff, English-mangling voice of Coach’s Corner has been silenced.

That it took this long for the CBC — and Rogers-owned Sportsnet, which took over the Hockey Night in Canada broadcast in 2014 — to come to their senses (over dollars) is a question that deserves better answers than Monday’s canning of 85-year-old Cherry.

I suppose this is where the tall TV foreheads decided to draw the line, but only after caterwauling from coast to coast and on social media.

Because this is no longer the Canada of 2003, when Cherry was put on a seven-second delay after another rant about the country declining to join the coalition war in Iraq, and, full disclosure, I agreed with him. (Where was that delay on Saturday, though?)

It’s not the Canada that went bonkers — but only in parts, and ignored — when Cherry slandered French-Canadian players and European players and Russian players.

It’s not the Canada that chuckled when Cherry mocked flamboyant players by putting on a lisping pansy accent.

He was out of time, out of step, if not necessarily out of his element on HNIC. Because a whole lot of fans are going to miss him a great deal, can’t deny that.

“I could have kept my job if I had apologized and changed,’’ Cherry told me in a phone call Monday night. “I would rather go out on my shield, the way I am. I can’t change to be a simp on Coach’s Corner because people wouldn’t recognize me. If I had to do that stuff to keep my job, I’d rather get fired. No, I don’t regret a thing. And if people want to interpret it, what I said, I guess that’s my problem.’’

Cherry has a long history of tirades against targets du jour that divided a nation, because frankly there were as many who loved him as loathed him. Still are, judging by the steamy pile of Cherry rah-rah trending on Twitter with the hashtag “Don Cherry is right.’’

Right about what, I’d ask the Cherry collective. Right in saying something clearly bigoted? Right in being the old guy jumping on his lawn and shaking a fist at the world? The unrepentant patriot who slimed “you people’’ — immigrants — as insufficiently respectful of vets on the slapdash measurement of not enough people wearing Remembrance Day poppies?

“You people love, that come here, whatever it is, you love our way of life. You love our milk and honey. At least you should pay a couple of bucks for a poppy or something like that,’’ Cherry intoned on-air in Saturday’s Coach’s Corner.

Then, stabbing a finger toward the camera: “These guys paid for your way of life that you enjoy in Canada. These guys paid the biggest price.’’

You people. Not so tacitly, non-white Canadians, immigrant Canadians, refugees from war. Cherry specifically mentioned downtown Toronto and Mississauga, where he lives, as poppy-light. Toronto and Mississauga, where half of the population self-identifies as a visible minority, according to the latest census data.

Clips of Don Cherry's past controversial moments on Hockey Night in Canada over the years.

Perhaps this is what really unnerves the Cherry. He’s an anachronism, pining for days when Canadians were white and of Anglo stock — except for that francophone rump in Quebec. When men were men and hockey enforcers roamed the rinks and multiculturalism was scarcely a gleam in Prime Minister Pierre Elliott Trudeau’s eye.

The codger with the collars clearly had no compunction about trashing “The Other,’’ while straight man Ron MacLean sat by like the sock puppet he is, even offering a thumbs up at the end of Cherry’s spiel. Certainly he doesn’t sound contrite, if insisting his words were misinterpreted.

“I want everybody to wear a poppy. I’m out among the soldiers, I walk the walk, I’ve been to our bases and visited the troops, at Christmas I was over in Afghanistan. I have a feeling for the soldier. And when I see people just walking by the guys selling poppies . . . well, I make no apologies.’’

He adds: “I was referring to everybody. I should have used that instead of ‘you people’. As soon as you say ‘you people’, everybody jumped aboard that. But I said it, I meant every word of it and I stand by my word.’’

The Canadian Broadcasting Standards Council was inundated with complaints about Cherry’s remarks.

“The CBSC has received a large number of very similar complaints concerning Coach’s Corner broadcast on CBC (Sportsnet) on Nov. 9, 2019, exceeding the CBSC’s technical processing capacities,’’ the organization posted on its website. “Accordingly, while the CBSC will be dealing with this broadcast under its normal process, it is not able to accept any further complaints.’’

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Sportsnet didn’t wait for that, president Bart Yabsley issuing a statement Monday, in the wake of a more mealy-mouthed statement Sunday.

“Sports brings people together — it unites us, not divides us. Following further discussions with Don Cherry after Saturday night’s broadcast, it has been decided it is the right time for him to immediately step down. During the broadcast he made divisive remarks that do not represent our values or what we stand for.’’

Long past time, actually.

Some 40 years removed from his NHL coaching career and a HNIC fixture for nearly as long, Cherry has used his platform to relentlessly promote his own view of humanity around the edges of hockey expertise. Somewhere along the line, probably because his bosses were never firm that Cherry was hired to talk hockey — not current events, not ideology, not regressive intolerance — he became an icon to the apparently humbled masses yearning to break free of encroaching political correctness.

He wore his intransigence on the sleeve of his crazy suit jackets.

And yes, many who serve in Canada’s military revere Cherry, clamoured to have their photo taken with him on the many occasions he flew over to mingle with the troops in Afghanistan. I don’t criticize them for that. Cherry was a star in their midst. He championed them tirelessly. But, especially on Saturday, he also implicated soldiers — the living and the dead — by making them party to his screed.

A man who has never served but fancies himself an amateur military historian conveniently neglected the countless immigrants, the sons and daughters of immigrants, Aboriginals, generations-old minority clans who fought for Canada in two world wars and serve under arms today, up to and including Defence Minister Harjit Sajjan, born in the Punjab, son of Sikh police constable. Sajjan was generous enough to cast Cherry’s comments as a “teachable moment.’’

On Sunday, Sajjan tweeted: “Last night, Don Cherry made comments that are wrong in describing Canadians’ remembrance of our veterans. His remarks don’t recognize the contribution of Canada’s diverse communities. I hope we can turn this into a moment where we can learn about all who have served.’’

This wasn’t, as many have tried to frame Cherry’s stream of invective, a matter of free speech, yoking Charter rights to mean-spirited commentary, clumping in his remarks with the recent controversy over the Toronto Public Library’s laudable insistence on allowing a widely-disparaged speaker to appear at one of their branches, or even the “Wexit’’ movement arising from Western Canada’s alienation following the national election.

Cherry is perfectly free to spew as he wishes. But he can’t do it from the HNIC pulpit, on the public airwaves, as an outsized broadcasting personality with a huge audience. I’m no fan of “cancel culture’’ and pious big-footing but enough is enough.

He’s never apologized in his life, made a virtue of that obstinacy. I’m not surprised he won’t offer a “sorry’’ now, in the moment of his ignominious fall.

So we go forward, hopefully taking with us all that’s good about Canada in 2019, leaving behind all that’s not. Coach’s Corner will surely survive. (Brian Burke come on down!)

“It’s tough but that’s the way it is,’’ said Cherry, who had no suggestion for who might assume his seat on Coach’s Corner.

“Nobody can succeed me,’’ he chortles down the line. “Somebody’s going to try but nobody will. And that’s the way I feel.’’

Nov. 11, 2019 — Update: This story has been changed from a previously published version to include comments from Don Cherry.

Rosie DiManno is a columnist based in Toronto covering sports and current affairs. Follow her on Twitter: @rdimanno

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