Friday > July 8 > 2005 Ahenakew: guilty of promoting hatred Tim Cook Canadian Press July 8, 2005 CREDIT: CP PHOTO/Troy Fleece David Ahenakew, an aboriginal leader charged with willful promotion of hatred, arrives at provincal court in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Friday, July 8, 2005.The former head of the Assembly of First Nations is charged with the wilful promotion of hatred and, if convicted, faces up to six months in jail. SASKATOON -- A defiant David Ahenakew lashed out at the Jewish community, the courts and the media Friday shortly after being convicted and fined for promoting hatred. Ahenakew said he is convinced authorities decided to strip him of the Order of Canada before the court reached its verdict. "This, of course, was the direct result of the pressure put on the (Governor General's) advisory committee by some of the Jewish community, including a letter-writing campaign and the lobbying by the Canadian Jewish Congress," he said at a news conference. "If I'm forced to choose between freedom of speech and the Order of Canada, I chose free speech." Ahenakew, 71, is currently a member of the Order of Canada, but on Thursday the Governor General's office confirmed it has begun the process of stripping him of that honour. The former First Nations leader was found guilty of wilfully promoting hatred when he referred to Jews as "a disease" and justified the Holocaust in December 2002, a judge ruled earlier Friday. Provincial court Judge Marty Irwin handed down his decision in a tiny courtroom packed with Ahenakew's supporters, members of the Jewish community and reporters. He then imposed a $1,000 fine on Ahenakew. "To suggest that any human being or group of human beings is a disease is to invite extremists to take action against them," the judge said. Ahenakew addressed the court before he was sentenced. "I am, of course, disappointed and at the same time very confused at what is justice and freedom in this country," he said. "I didn't mean to hurt people's feelings." Later, during his news conference, Ahenakew, who was decorated for overseas military service during the 1950s, said he wondered if the government would revoke those medals as well. He also said Canada's aboriginal people have been victims of a foreign and hostile justice system. "First Nations people have never received a fair trial in Canada's judicial system," he said. He said he believes he is innocent, but will not appeal the verdict. "The jails of our country are full of our people. My case was as much about racism against First Nations as it was about alleged racism against the Jewish community." Ahenakew also attacked the media for its coverage of aboriginal Canadians. The trial lasted for four days in April. Court heard how the former head of the Assembly of First Nations made a fiery speech to the Federation of Saskatchewan Indian Nations on Dec. 13, 2002, in which he said the Jews started the Second World War. Asked about his comment afterward by a reporter from the Saskatoon StarPhoenix, Ahenakew called Jews "a disease." "The Jews damn near owned all of Germany prior to the war. That's how Hitler came in," Ahenakew said in the taped interview. "That's why he fried six million of those guys, you know." Ahenakew publicly apologized for his comments a few days later, but at his trial it seemed, at times, that he still believed what he said. Initially he testified that he was only repeating what he was told by the Germans when he served overseas with the Canadian army and that he trusted what he heard. At points, however, he wavered and suggested he didn't know what to believe anymore. He told court he wasn't feeling well the day he made the speech, because his diabetes medication had recently been changed and his blood sugar was high. He said he didn't think his comments would be published, even though he knew he was talking to a reporter. Ahenakew has until Saturday to voluntarily give up his Order of Canada or argue against his removal from the list of Canada's most esteemed citizens. If he ends up having to turn in his pin, he will be only the second person to do so. Alan Eagleson, former head of the National Hockey League Players Association, was stripped of his Order of Canada in 1998 after he was convicted of fraud. C Canadian Press 2005 <http://www.canada.com/components/printstory/printstory4.aspx?id=62ddf3ea-6c c7-4eaa-84cc-3b16281d3999##> Copyright C 2005 CanWest Interactive, a division of <http://www.canwestglobal.com/> CanWest Global Communications Corp. All rights reserved. Optimized for browser versions 4.0 and higher. [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] -------------------------- Want to discuss this topic? 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