Hockey Night in Canada star Don Cherry, right, signs heavy artillery during a Christmas Day visit to Canadian troops stationed at outposts in Kandahar, Afghanistan. (Steve Rennie/Canadian Press)

It comes as little surprise that the Toronto Star’s annual year-end darts and laurels take a few cheap shots while elevating others. Let’s look at a few:

Laurel: MUNIR SHEIKH: For integrity. The respected head of Statistics Canada resigned in protest over the census decision after Clement left the false impression that StatsCan agreed with the government’s decision.

Integrity? For what? Quitting a six-figure job during a recession over some ridiculous principle that people in a free society should be forced to hand over personal information to the government? How about a dart, for setting an example that when things don’t go your way, quit.

Dart: DON CHERRY: For lacking a sense of occasion. The hockey commentator used the platform he was given at the inaugural meeting of Toronto’s new city council to deliver an anti-“pinko” screed as tasteless as his jackets.

Dart for Don Cherry? Why, because he made a joke about Toronto’s pervasive socialist climate? Uh, gimme a break. First of all, when Rob Ford was elected there were more than a few people in Toronto calling it the second coming of Hitler. They called him a racist, a fat slob and an idiot. How about a dart for the complainers of Toronto for having so little respect for democratic will?

How about a laurel for Don Cherry, for being one of the few people who puts his money where his mouth is. For all of his promotion of our military in Afghanistan on Coaches Corner (something almost no other media personality will do), he wound up putting himself in harm’s way in Afghanistan to visit the troops. The same couldn’t be said for the Toronto Star’s editorial.

Laurel: PETER MILLIKEN: For affirming Parliament’s ancient rights. The Speaker of the House of Commons gave no ground in a showdown with the government over parliamentary access to secret Afghan detainee files.

Hm. About a dart for the opposition parties, for choosing to focus more on whether murderous barbarians have received an impossible standard of care instead of forcing the government to make a decision on the future of the mission in Afghanistan? Now the choice post-2011 training missions in safer places like Kabul have been snatched up by other countries. It’s 2005 all over again. Thanks to our dithering indigent “parliamentary rights”.

Laurel: JOHN FURLONG: For delivering. The head of the Vancouver Olympic organizing committee delivered an outstanding Games, notwithstanding bad weather and some bad luck in the early going. He also did it on budget.

Let’s not forget the boatload of taxpayer money. Furlong’s delivery notwithstanding, the Star can hardly be blamed for not caring about the Olympic Village boondoggle that is now the bane of Vancouver.