Jessica Allen addressed comments she made about how young hockey players were “white boy bullies” on Wednesday afternoon’s airing of CTV’s The Social.
The comments which were spoken during a discussion on the firing of Don Cherry by Sportsnet sparked outrage from Canadians online and the hashtag #FireJessAllen was trending as a result.
“They all tended to be white boys who weren’t, let’s say very nice, they were not generally thoughtful, they were often bullies. Their parents were able to afford to spend $5,000 a year on hockey,” said Allen yesterday afternoon.
Earlier today, Allen spoke at length about her comments saying that she was only speaking about “personal experiences with specific people, who were hockey players, white, not typically kind or thoughtful and often bullies from affluent families.”
“I was speaking about my own lived experiences, often negative experiences with those who’ve played the sport and how they’ve led to me being conflicted, really conflicted about how hockey is so closely bound to our national identity,” said Allen.
The other hosts came to Allen’s defense saying that they will continue to talk about “controversial topics” on the show.
“Jess, I want you to know that we and the entire team here in this building and beyond support you one hundred percent,” said fellow host Melissa Grelo.
Since being fired from the Coach’s Corner, Cherry has stood by his comments saying that they were taken out of context.
