"I know what I said and I meant it. Still do. Everybody in Canada should wear a poppy to honour our fallen soldiers," Cherry told The Canadian Press, saying Sportsnet fired him.
Cherry, however, denies he was singling out visible minorities.
"I did not say minorities, I did not say immigrants. If you watch Coach's Corner, I did not say that. I said 'everybody.' And I said 'you people,"' Cherry said.
"Irish, Scotch, anybody that's newcomers to Canada, and they should wear a poppy to honour our dead from the past, whether they're Scotch or Irish or English, or where they come from."
Cherry added that he could have stayed on "if I had turned into a tame robot who nobody would recognize."