Mr. Speaker, last week, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation announced that Ron MacLean and the CBC had reached an agreement for the next season of Hockey Night in Canada .
In the course of these negotiations, we learned that sports commentator Don Cherry was being paid $700,000 by the CBC. I was stunned when I heard that, not just because this is a very high salary, but primarily because of the controversial nature of the comments made by this commentator, who does not hesitate to criticize the presence of foreign players and who indulges in discriminatory comments against francophones.
Don Cherry was found guilty, by the Quebec press council, of making insulting comments about Jean-Luc Brassard, a freestyle skier and the flag bearer of the Canadian team at the 1998 Nagano Winter Olympic Games. Then, in March 2001, Don Cherry spewed his venom on the Francophonie Games that were going to be held in the Ottawa-Hull region, in the summer of 2001.
I welcome the renewal of Ron MacLean's contract and I hope that Mr. MacLean will help keep his partner Don Cherry more in line in his comments, because his behaviour has definitely not been deserving of the forum made available to him by the CBC.