From the WSJ Opinion Archives
REVIEW & OUTLOOK

Sticks and Stones
French guys aren't real men and Canada is scandalized.

Friday, February 13, 2004 12:01 A.M. EST

Normally you'd think that a sport known for its broken noses and missing teeth would constitute a splendid inoculation against an outbreak of political correctness. Alas, not so. Just ask Don Cherry.

In his native Canada, Mr. Cherry is something of a hockey--and therefore national--institution. His pulpit these days is a Canadian Broadcasting Corp. TV program called "Coach's Corner." It's hard to say which are louder: his high-collared shirts and suits or his opinions. Today the 70-year-old former NHL coach finds himself under federal investigation (their feds, not ours) for saying on air that the only hockey players who wear visors to protect their faces are "European or French guys."

If you think Janet Jackson's Super Bowl appearance was explosive, it's nothing compared with Mr. Cherry's willingness to make a clean breast of his views on visors. In Mr. Cherry's opinion, real men don't wear visors. And the clear implication here (and Mr. Cherry's implications are nothing if not clear) is that "French guys" aren't real men. By that, of course, he didn't mean Jacques Chirac. He meant those Canadians from the Quebec side of the divide--which is why we now have an investigation by Canada's Official Languages Commissar, er, Commissioner.

Never mind that there is a serious claim buried here--that the more protective the headgear in hockey, the dirtier the play, because it gives players a false sense of the head's invulnerability. Not to mention that at least one Winnipeg lawyer says that the stats back up Mr. Cherry's assertion. What may really be getting his critics' sticks in the air is not so much his views on "French guys" as his views on Uncle Sam.

When Montreal fans booed the U.S. national anthem at a hockey game last March in the wake of the Iraq invasion, Mr. Cherry responded by apologizing to his "American friends." Goaded by his co-host, Mr. Cherry lamented those who wouldn't offer "moral help" for a neighbor who'd always been first in line whenever Canada found itself in trouble. "And when they needed us," he went on, "and all they said, all they needed was to say, 'We back you.' They didn't want any troops. Just say we back you. When the chips were down we turned our back on them." Even more infuriating was a follow-up radio interview in which he explained his fears about losing his job by saying "you have to realize the CBC is government-owned."

For now, official Canada has shown far greater resolve with regard to Mr. Cherry than it ever did with Saddam Hussein, with the CBC labeling Mr. Cherry's visor remarks "reprehensible" and vowing that they "will not be tolerated." Accordingly it has now instituted a seven-second delay, presumably to prevent anyone from ever using "French guys" as a pejorative again. Sounds to us as though someone has taken too many pucks to the head. And it's not Don Cherry.

Click to email this article EMAIL THIS Click to format this article for printing FORMAT FOR PRINTING RESPOND TO THIS ARTICLE READ RESPONSES
ARCHIVE