|
Zundel
| Steven Williams | Winnipeg Chief Ewatski |
David Ahenakew
Hate and Justice,
Saskatchewan style
Hate and Justice Saskatchewan
style
I grew up in a small town in
Saskatchewan during the fifties. There were no "Indians"
and no Jews in my town. Aboriginal people were mostly restricted
to reserves and did not even have the franchise. There was a
Chinese family who ran the cafe and my father wopped me upside
my head when I mimicked my school peers by calling the cafe "The
Chink's". This same tolerant man was disdainful of Roman
Catholics and blamed some of the trouble I got into on "your
dogan friends." I'm still not quite sure what the root of
this particular religious slur is.
When I went to the Big City
(Regina) at age 17, I gravitated to tolerant people who quickly
-- and gently -- set me straight about some of the bigotry which
dropped trippingly out of my ignorant young mouth. I quickly
accepted the concept of racial and religious equality and spent
a good bit of time pondering the actions of the Israeli state
-- especially after seeing the movie Exodus. Then as now I was
helped to clarify my thoughts through discussions with tolerant
people.
Now we are watching an aboriginal
man who has previously been honoured with medals and held in
esteem by his community brought to his knees after spewing anti-Semitic
bigotry. The general response of the Jewish community was to
invite Ahenakew to meet with them. I understand that such a meeting
took place, Mr. Ahenakew apologized and resigned from public
office. This is something of a sacrifice: if members of his own
community were allowed to scrutinize his financial affairs, along
with those of other chiefs who have become wealthy at the expense
of their band members, he might not fare so well.
Ahenakew's forced resignation
and public apology was justice.
The Saskatchewan Crown's decision
to proceed against him after his acceptance of such a public
flaying has nothing to do with justice. Brent Klause is an ambitious
prosecutor and I'm sure he sees this prosecution as an easy win.
The ongoing court proceedings
against him serve only to drive Ahenakew back into an entrenched
position rather than examine the reasons why he made the racist
outburst in the first place. Bringing in hired gun Doug Christie
suggests Ahenakew has been taking advice from those who wish
to fan the flames of discontent. Christie's argument that the
comments were made in private rather than public is curious.
This may be the boondocks but we are not brain dead. Are not
2-300 aboriginal people members of the public? The question which
needs to be answered is whether or not Ahenakew made the comments
with the sole intention of inciting hatred against Jews. Of course
he did not have this as his purpose any more than any drunk who
says hateful, stupid things actually expects to be taken seriously.
Irrationality cannot meet reason without a sober bridge.
Once again we see that the
Saskatchewan Department of Justice holds malice in its heart
even as David Ahenakew tries to erase it from his. -- Sheila
Steele, April 5, 2005
P.S. I scratched my head yesterday
to try and come up with something to explain Ahenekew's performance
in court. Apparentlly he is not repentent at all and Christie
hinted at presenting a deence based on low-blood sugar triggering
latent anti-Semitism. Today, I am saved by Les MacPherson who
has written a column. -- April 7
On Friday I received e-mail from a friend
declaiming the forces of evil which has seemed to overtake all
tolerance in this land. I have considered this and here is my
response: These are two websites which we can all use to help
educate ourselves.
 
Manitoba chief claims
Ahenakew coverage increasing hatred of Jews
CBC, Apr 11, 2005
WINNIPEG - A First Nations
chief in Manitoba says media coverage of David Ahenakew's hate
trial will increase aboriginals' hatred of Jews and make the
former leader of the Assembly of First Nations a martyr.
Ahenakew was on trial last week for promoting hatred against
an identifiable group over comments he made at a conference in
December 2002, when he praised Adolf Hitler and the Holocaust
and referred to Jews as "a disease."
In a letter faxed to the Winnipeg
Free Press, Roseau River Reserve Chief Terrance Nelson said he
doesn't agree with Ahenakew's views.
But he claims Jews control
Canadian media and ignore First Nations issues. In the letter,
Nelson singled out CanWest Global Communications; its owners,
Winnipeg's Asper family; and their newspaper, the National Post
as "the voice of Jews."
He confirmed his views during
a telephone interview, says the Free Press report.
David Matas, a spokesperson
with the B'nai Brith League for Human Rights, has demanded the
Roseau River band fire Nelson.
Last week, Ahenakew's lawyer
Doug Christie said the reporter who wrote the newspaper article
quoting Ahenakew should be charged with a hate crime.
Christie said reporter James
Parker, who used to work for the CanWest-owned Saskatoon StarPhoenix,
knowingly disseminated hate by writing the article in the first
place.
If found guilty, Ahenakew could
face up to six months in jail. Provincial Court Judge Marty Irwin
is expected to rule on the case on June 10.
Lawyer blames reporter
in hate crime trial
Judge to decide fate of Ahenakew June 10
Darren Bernhardt, The
StarPhoenix, April 08, 2005
The often-colourful hate trial
of disgraced Indian leader David Ahenakew wrapped up Thursday
with the defence insisting it was "a unique case, a very
unusual case," but not a criminal one.
If anyone is to blame, Doug
Christie reiterated during his closing argument, it is the reporter
who wrote the story.
"If a tree falls in the
wilderness is there a sound? Similarly, if the story hadn't been
published, no one else would have heard it," Christie said.
"(The reporter) had no legal or moral duty to publish. Had
he not, there would have been no public hatred."
The trial ended much more tamely
than the spectacle it has been all week -- with both counsel
loudly sniping at one another and shouts of racism from the gallery
being directed at Crown prosecutor Brent Klause. Judge Marty
Irwin thanked counsel for their "vigour and candour"
in dealing with the obvious stress between them and "what
was going on in the audience."
Right to the end, Christie
expressed the same disdain for the media. He urged Irwin to make
an example of this case and send a warning to the media to stop
"ambush interviews."
"Until that decision is
made, the media will take advantage of every loose cannon, every
person who says something in haste. I know this places the media
in a position of responsibility they would prefer not to have."
At a Dec. 13, 2002, health
conference in Saskatoon put on by the Federation of Saskatchewan
Indian Nations (FSIN), Ahenakew, 71, informed hundreds of delegates
that during the two years he served with the Canadian military
in Germany, he was told Jews created the Second World War. When
interviewed by then-StarPhoenix reporter James Parker following
the speech, Ahenakew said he believed that to be true. And he
went further, saying the Holocaust was warranted because Jews
"damn near owned all of Germany prior to the war."
"That's why he (Adolf
Hitler) fried six million of those guys, you know. Jews would
have owned the goddamned world."
When asked by Parker how he
could justify the killing of six million Jews, Ahenakew responded,
"How do you get rid of a disease like that, that's going
to take over everything?"
Ahenakew claims his words were
"twisted" by Parker but Klause noted they were written
exactly as stated on the tape.
Racist speech, while improper,
is not illegal if it is not stated with an intent to incite hatred,
Christie said. He suggested Ahenakew's comments to Parker were
disjointed and rambling, demonstrating a lack of intent.
"Words give you a picture
of the mind and that is a picture of a mind in a state of confusion,
an uncommitted mind," Christie said. "This is the clearest
case where intent is patently absent."
Klause pointed out that Ahenakew
testified this week that his role, in speaking at the FSIN conference,
was "to inspire" people who look up to him as a respected
leader.
Ahenakew charged that once
Parker "baited" him into the discussion, he took advantage
of his "condition" and wouldn't allow him to leave.
The questions kept coming and he felt "trapped," Ahenakew
said.
The former Assembly of First
Nations (AFN) chief claimed the dose of medication for his diabetes
and blood pressure was doubled two weeks prior to making the
remarks.
"It affected me negatively,
made me say things I wouldn't otherwise say," he said.
"People can get irrational
and the first thing we lose is care with our words. But I'm not
here to discuss the morality of words," Christie said, noting
it is the law he is concerned about and the Criminal Code does
not allow for charges of hate if the words were articulated in
a private conversation.
The debate between Parker and
Ahenakew "was the closest you can get to a private conversation
between two people," he said.
Asked by Christie about the
claim the Holocaust was done "to clean up the world,"
Ahenakew said Parker wouldn't give him time to explain. And when
asked by Christie why he answered some other questions, the subject
of which he now claims he knows nothing about, Ahenakew said
he wasn't thinking. He gave an answer hoping to end the debate.
Klause asked how it could be
private when one person was representing the public as a reporter.
There has been no evidence Ahenakew ever saw a recorder, said
Christie. Ahenakew consistently denied it, although Parker earlier
in the week testified "it was in Ahenakew's face."
"Whether he knew or didn't
know about the tape recorder, the act of publishing was not under
his consent or control," said Christie, again blaming Parker.
While Ahenakew made his statements
in a rash, heated debate, Parker had time to consider the legal
consequences, talk to a lawyer and his editors, and listen again
to the tape before publishing the story.
The issue of intent will be
"paramount" in the judgment, said Irwin, who will render
a verdict on June 10. The holdup is due to Klause opting to submit
a written argument. He has until May 15 to submit it and Christie
has until May 30 to rebut.
The added delay bothered Christie,
who said his client "has endured the threat of these proceedings"
for 2 1/2 years" and is looking for closure. It has effected
Ahenakew's health and that of his family, said Christie, who
expressed "doubt any Jew was suffering" because the
comments weren't wilful and therefore, not dangerous.
Christie even questioned the
very existence of a Jewish faith, saying, "whatever that
may mean." He questioned what constitutes a Jew, even though
an ordained rabbi testified this week as an expert in qualifying
Jewish people and their faith as an identifiable group which
could be subject to persecution.
Ahenakew shouldn't have to
suffer anymore, said Christie.
Klause said the delays experienced
in getting to trial are "solely attributable to Mr. Ahenakew"
who couldn't secure a lawyer.
"The Crown takes this
seriously. It would be a real disservice to the public"
to rush," Klause said.
Ahenakew testified Thursday
his anti-Semitic comments were blurted out in frustration as
he began comparing the treatment inflicted upon First Nations
people by European immigrants to the "persecution"
of Palestinians by Israelis.
While in Israel on military
assignment, Ahenakew saw two children blown up by Israeli anti-personnel
mines. He also watched as the Israelis "began to take over
the land of Palestinians -- their orchards, their water,"
he said. The same "persecution and genocide, murder, isolation
relates to the First Nations in Canada," he claimed.
Christie played the audio tape
of Ahenakew's tearful apology, made the week after he realized
he would be charged by the RCMP. Ahenakew insists the decision
to make the apology was a voluntary one but his "stubbornness
and pig-headedness" kept me from coming forward sooner.
If the apology was truly sincere,
Klause asked why Ahenakew repeated his comments in the July-August
2003 edition of THIS magazine. Ahenakew blamed that on the reporter
as well.
Ahenakew often contradicted
himself while his own counsel was questioning him. When Christie
asked what he meant by 'disease,' Ahenakew said it was the monopoly
ownership of businesses by Jews. "So you weren't referring
to the actual Jewish people?" Christie asked.
"Yes," Ahenakew said.
"You were?" Christie
said, surprised.
"Yes," Ahenakew said,
then paused, "Well, not only Jews, but people in general."
"And you were using Jews
as an example?" Christie asked?
"Yeah, sure," Ahenakew
said.
He also testified the remarks
taped by Parker do not represent thoughts he, nor anyone he knows,
believe to be true.
"I denounce those statements
and I denounce racism," he said, adding "it is never
going to happen again."
But later in the examination
by Christie, Ahenakew said he would make the comments again "if
I was forced to." He didn't explain what that meant. He
also said he still stands by his comments, then said he doesn't
know what to believe anymore.
© The StarPhoenix (Saskatoon) 2005
Ahenakew blames everyone
but himself
Les MacPherson, The
StarPhoenix, April 7, 2005
What a strange and contradictory
man is David Ahenakew.
The most formidable Indian
leader of his era, honoured for his devotion to progress and
education, the Order of Canada gleaming from his lapel, Ahenakew
also reveals streak of nastiness wide enough to obscure all his
merits. Thus he finds himself in a Saskatoon courtroom facing
criminal charges of inciting hatred against Jews, of all people.
Why Jews? What have Jews ever
done to David Ahenakew?
There were no Jews on Sandy
Lake (now Ahtahkakoop) Reserve west of Prince Albert where Ahenakew
grew up. Elsewhere in the province, the Jewish population is
so small as to be almost invisible. There are more Buddhists
in Saskatchewan than Jews. There are more Hindus than Jews. Few
groups on the planet are more benign than the Jews of Saskatchewan.
As is so often the case, however,
hate defies reason. Himself a member of a historically oppressed
minority, you'd think Ahenakew would be sympathetic to Jewish
people. You'd think he'd embrace them as kindred spirits. Instead,
he climbs on a soapbox to vilify Jews in terms so odious as to
invite criminal charges.
From all indications, he is
not the least bit repentant. On the contrary, he declared this
week in open court, under oath, that he stands by his anti-Semitic
rant at a FSIN conference in 2002. He seems to wear his hate
now as a badge of pride.
We now see that his earlier
public apology was more of about damage control than contrition.
". . . I extend my deepest
condolences and apologies to the Jewish community," a tearful
Ahenakew said at a news conference. But Tuesday, in court, he
was anything but apologetic. Rather, he endorsed his vile comments
to the effect that Jews are a disease, that they started the
Second World War and so on. It's the kind of racist claptrap
you'd expect from a neo-Nazi skinhead, not a member of the Order
of Canada.
By ratifying his anti-Semitic
remarks, Ahenakew all but closes off one possible line of defence.
He has suggested both in and out of court that his offensive
comments were delivered while he was tired and emotional, with
high blood pressure and low blood sugar. But if that were the
case, if Ahenakew really was addled by ill-health, you'd expect
that he'd now want to distance himself from his comments. Instead,
he embraces them in open court.
It's possible, of course, that
Ahenakew was again tired, emotional and all the rest of it in
court, too. It's also possible that he was tired, emotional,
etc., when, months after his so-called apology, he complained
in an interview with Toronto's This Magazine that Jews control
the world media.
". . . There's got to
be something done about that," he fumed.
Was this the low blood sugar
talking, yet again? Or was it David Ahenazundel?
Ahenakew continues to blame
everyone but himself for the fix he is in. He was provoked by
an unethical reporter, he says. His words were twisted, his meaning
distorted. He didn't know his remarks were on the record. It
is the media that left his reputation in tatters. He is the victim
of "a deadly attack." As if it is the media that keeps
insisting that Jewish people are a menace.
Ahenakew's refusal to take
responsibility is confirmed by his tortured legal defence. The
law under which he is being prosecuted makes it a criminal offence
to incite hatred against an identifiable group, except in private
conversation. Through his lawyer, the very persuasive Doug Christie,
Ahenakew argued that his anti-Semitic remarks, delivered in a
speech to 200 people and then expanded upon in a taped interview
with a StarPhoenix reporter, were private conversation. That
the court took two full days to hear and dispose of this patently
ridiculous claim before the trial itself could proceed is a measure
of the generosity of presiding Judge Marty Irwin. Two minutes
should have been sufficient.
It's not just Jews that Ahenakew
wants rid of. He's got enough hate in him for almost everyone.
He told the FSIN conference that, if he were still in charge,
he'd lead Indians to war against all the other races in North
America.
"You're lucky I'm not
chief," he declared.
On that, at least, he could
not be more correct.
© The StarPhoenix (Saskatoon) 2005
Ahenakew maintains Jews
began world war
Darren Bernhardt, The
StarPhoenix, April 6, 2005
Former Assembly of First Nations
chief David Ahenakew testified at his hate trial Tuesday he still
believes the Jews are responsible for starting the Second World
War, despite being on trial for stating those remarks in December
2002.
"So you still believe
today, in 2005, that the Jewish people started the Second World
War?" Crown prosecutor Brent Klause asked Ahenakew.
"Yes," he responded.
"You stand by your comments?"
repeated Klause.
"Yeah," Ahenakew
said, adding that he wasn't afraid of offending anybody. "I'm
talking the truth. I don't think I said anything wrong during
my speech."
His original comments about
the Jews starting the war were made to a Federation of Saskatchewan
Indian Nations (FSIN) assembly of about 150-300 people on Dec.
13, 2002. He went further during an interview with then-StarPhoenix
reporter James Parker, saying the Holocaust was warranted because
Jews "damn near owned all of Germany prior to the war. That's
why he (Adolf Hitler) fried six million of those guys, you know.
Jews would have owned the goddamned world."
When asked by Parker how he
could justify the killing of six million Jews, Ahenakew responded,
"How do you get rid of a disease like that, that's going
to take over everything."
The RCMP charged him shortly
thereafter, resulting in the present trial in Saskatoon's provincial
court.
Meanwhile, defence lawyer Doug
Christie continued his offensive against the media, saying they
are part of a police state. The trial as a whole spiraled further
into a spirited spectacle as members of the gallery reacted loudly
to statements by Klause and called him a racist.
Ahenakew's wife, Grace, led
much of the commentary, even calling out to her husband in Cree
as he was being cross-examined. Ahenakew would smile and nod.
Klause noted that in the interview
with Parker, Ahenakew said the "goddamn immigrants -- East
Indians, Pakistanis, Afghanistans and whites" were calling
his grandson a "dirty little Indian" at school.
"Are you not an immigrant?"
asked Klause.
God created the land and Indians
were first on it, said Ahenakew. To which Klause replied, the
study of anthropology suggests otherwise.
"And it's all written
by you people," said Ahenakew, rousing laughter from the
gallery.
"I suggest your people
came across the Bering Straight," said Klause, causing the
gallery to bristle with condemnation.
"Whose the racist now?"
shouted one person.
By the afternoon, Klause had
enough "of the tirade from the back" and asked Judge
Marty Irwin to establish decorum. People were warned they would
be escorted out if they spoke out any more.
After losing his bid to have
Irwin exclude Ahenakew's taped comments from the trial, Christie
called it "a setback for anybody who doesn't want to see
the media get a licence to promote hatred if they can find someone
in a moment of passion to quote. In my opinion, the media are
now placed in the position of being a willing instrument of a
police state. You are now capable of being used to not only to
promote hatred with impunity but to gather evidence against people
from private conversations to be used against them criminally."
Christie also lost an attempt
to have Irwin issue a contempt of court order against the media
for publishing and broadcasting Ahenakew's comments after Monday's
proceedings, as a ruling on the taped evidence hadn't yet been
made.
"If court was to rule
the statements were privately uttered, they should never be part
of the public trial and broadcast," Christie said to Irwin,
noting that doing so prejudices Ahenakew.
"These media persons are
so insatiably anxious to vilify the accused, they cannot wait
for court to decide if it was a private conversation. (The media)
are taking up the front row (in the courtroom) and turning this
into a sensational circus," Christie said. "They should
have respect for the court."
Suggesting the media is hypocritical
by vilifying Ahenakew but repeatedly publishing the "so-called
hateful" comments, Christie turned and glared at the row
of reporters and said, "They're concerned about preventing
the promotion of hatred? What a joke."
"I think you guys are
doing a terrible one-sided attack on a virtually helpless individual,"
he told reporters outside court during the lunch break.
In court, Christie accused
Parker of getting his hands on "juicy material" and
wanting to use it to make himself "a media star" with
no regard to destroying Ahenakew's career (the latter described
his reputation as being in "tatters" since the story
ran).
Under Christie's questioning,
Ahenakew denied ever seeing Parker's notepad or tape recorder
and therefore, did not know the reporter. Therefore, he thought
he was engaged in a debate, or "confrontation" as Ahenakew
put it, not an interview.
As for the comments to the
general assembly, Ahenakew stated he was speaking to First Nations
people, "my people," not society as a whole. His comments
were being shared with a gathering of like-minded people and
not intended for publication.
"Not a soul in this world
would have known about the conversation (between Ahenakew and
Parker) except for James Parker," Christie noted. "Who
made them public then? Not Mr. Ahenakew."
While Ahenakew's remarks "may
not be good or right or morally just," they are not criminal
if they were private, Christie said.
But under Klause's cross-examination,
Ahenakew admitted Parker asked for an interview and that he knew
Parker from an ignominious reputation among the First Nation
community. Parker had been reporting the aboriginal beat for
10 years to that point and many Indian people were unhappy with
how they were portrayed in the stories, Ahenakew said.
"So you knew he (Parker)
was a reporter and reporters have a nasty habit of reporting,"
Klause said. "They are paid to report things that they interview
you about."
"But you don't go out
there and try to destroy a person, or persons. The media has
a filthy habit of distorting everything you say," Ahenakew
fired back.
"With all due respect,
Mr. Ahenakew, Mr. Parker reported exactly what you said,"
Klause said.
Ahenakew said he couldn't recall
if that was exactly what he'd said -- that he would need to hear
the tape again. Klause offered to play it but Ahenakew said he
didn't want to hear it and he intended to plug his ears.
"Playing the tape is perpetuating
the so-called hate. All it does is spread over the world and
all of a sudden I'm an animal, a blatant, racist animal,"
he said.
Ahenakew insisted that his
comments to Parker were made in a "confrontation" about
the issue, not an interview.
As for the statements to the
conference delegates, Klause asked how Ahenakew could believe
it was private when the media was invited as was Amnesty International,
the World Health Organization, College of Dentistry and College
of Physicians and Surgeons.
On top of that, it was in a
ballroom of one of the province's most prominent hotels, the
Delta Bessborough, Klause said. And it was taped by FSIN for
potentially wider use among the province's 100,000 First Nations,
Klause noted. He asked Ahenakew if everyone had been sworn to
secrecy.
"No, but we have a policy,"
Ahenakew responded.
Ahenakew was under the impression
the FSIN protocol would protect him. The federation reviews such
tapes before releasing them to ensure the comments accord with
FSIN views, he explained.
What about other guests who
weren't from the First Nations? asked Klause. Ahenakew said he
wasn't directing his comments to them.
"It's an insult to First
Nations people that you expect them to agree with your views
because they are aboriginal," said Klause.
Ahenakew went on to state how
"his" people are "at war" with everybody
who isn't First Nation. He said his comments to Parker were made
as he felt frustrated with the "genocide" inflicted
upon his people for 500 years. He was comparing that to the Jews,
he said. But Klause noted the taped evidence never mentions the
First Nations plight.
In making his decision, Irwin
agreed Ahenakew could not have a reasonable expectation of privacy,
nor could he define his speech -- a 45-minute rant by one person
-- as a conversation.
The sentence Ahenakew faces
under the hate law is six months in prison or a $2,000 fine.
© The StarPhoenix (Saskatoon) 2005
- Hate law fraught with
danger:
- defence
Darren Bernhardt, The StarPhoenix,
April 5, 2005
CREDIT: Greg Pender, The
StarPhoenix David Ahenakew with lawyer Doug Christie brushes
past reporters
Canada's hate law is a dangerous
instrument used to "isolate, alienate and criminalize people"
who speak in anger but mean nothing by it, the lawyer defending
a former high-ranking Indian chief said Monday.
As much as former national
chief David Ahenakew is on trial for inciting hatred against
Jews, the media is being chastised by his lawyer, Doug Christie,
for being careless in wielding "enormous power."
"If people have to look
over their shoulder every time they open their mouth and consider
whether they're going to be charged, only those with power will
be able to speak," Christie told reporters outside Saskatoon
provincial court as Ahenakew's trial got underway.
"I'm well aware that Indian
people have felt powerless for a long time. That perhaps is why
sometimes they get angry. And anger is not necessarily intentional.
Anger gets one to say things one doesn't necessarily think through
and one doesn't necessarily mean. That happens sometimes. It
happened here."
The RCMP charged Ahenakew with
public incitement of hatred for remarks in December 2002. Speaking
at a conference of the Federation of Saskatchewan Indian Nations
(FSIN), Ahenakew said the Jews were responsible for starting
the Second World War.
Following the speech, then-StarPhoenix
reporter James Parker requested an interview and asked Ahenakew
to clarify what he meant. In the taped interview played back
in court, Ahenakew said Adolf Hitler was right to kill Jews during
the Holocaust because they "damn near owned all of Germany
prior to the war. That's why he fried six million of those guys,
you know. Jews would have owned the goddamned world."
When asked by Parker how he
could justify the killing of six million Jews, Ahenakew responded,
"How do you get rid of a disease like that, that's going
to take over everything."
The pair debated the subject
until Ahenakew ended the conversation by saying, "To hell
with the Jews, I can't stand them and that's it. Don't talk about
the Jews," according to the tape.
During the playback, Ahenakew
shifted in his seat, often removed his glasses and rubbed the
bridge of his nose or leaned on the table with his head in his
hands.
Christie focused his defence
of one line of the hate law, which states, "Other than in
private conversation." Despite an audience of 200-500 people
(on witness estimations) at the FSIN conference, Christie argued
Ahenakew's remarks are private because they were directed at
an audience of First Nations people at an event that required
registration and invitations.
But FSIN vice-chief Lawrence
Joseph testified that media was invited in the hopes the main
message from the conference, that of the federal government forcing
First Nations people to sign medical consent forms, would be
published along with the FSIN's opposition to it. The purpose
of registration was simply to gauge how many people attended,
Joseph said.
As for the conversation between
Parker and Ahenakew, Christie was adamant it was private because
Parker failed to introduce himself as a reporter and tell Ahenakew
the comments would be published. Therefore, it was just a conversation,
he said.
"It is incumbent upon
the Crown to prove it was not a private conversation and that
(if public) it must have been known to the accused," Christie
said in court.
"To suggest that a private
conversation made to 200 people and then made to a reporter --
who you know is a reporter who is going to broadcast that publicly
-- is perverse," Steven Slimovitch, national legal counsel
for B'nai Brith Canada, told reporters outside the courthouse.
He is monitoring the trial
for the implications it has on the charter.
The trial is also being attended
by civil liberties groups and a Holocaust survivor, Miklos Kanitz,
who lost 100 members of his extended family to Hitler's troops.
The small courtroom seats 36
people but had 50 squeezed in. To accommodate everyone, Judge
Marty Irwin made use of the bench in the prisoner's docket and
placed chairs behind the counsel tables.
The gallery was treated to
a trial replete with tension and bickering that rivaled that
of TV dramas. One bone of contention for Christie was the media's
monopoly of the front-row seats in the courtroom. They had been
reserved for reporters by Saskatchewan Justice.
"This is not a media circus
or event, it's a public courtroom. The reserved seats are not
really appropriate or necessary," he said. "A good
deal of my client's friends couldn't get in."
Irwin apologized for the small
room, explaining the larger courtrooms were occupied.
"It is clear we have given
them (media) preferential treatment (but) they do represent the
public who can't be here. It's part of the open trial system
and I'm comfortable with giving the media special consideration."
When Christie requested a voir
dire (a trial within a trial after which the judge will decide
whether to consider the evidence) on the videotape from the FSIN
conference, Crown prosecutor Brent Klause objected, saying that
Christie agreed during an earlier pre-trial that wouldn't be
necessary.
"So I'm quite surprised,
on the day of the trial, that he changes opinion and attempts
to suppress the tape recording," said Klause, who suggested
the tape be used to "set the scene."
"My friend makes statements
that cast aspersions but I don't like to get into arguments,"
said Christie. "And I strenuously object to the phrase,
'set the scene.' This is not theatre."
In the end, the entire day
was covered by the voir dire, leaving the evidence uncertain
until Irwin decides what will be allowed. That is expected today
after Klause cross-examines Ahenakew, who took the stand at the
end of Monday
Ahenakew insisted his comments
were never intended for broadcast and he wouldn't have uttered
them otherwise. He said a tape recorder was not visible so he
believed he was involved in a debate, not an interview.
Earlier in the day, Parker
said the recorder was "right in front of his (Ahenakew's)
face" and an interview had been requested, which implies
publication. The question-and-answer session between Parker and
Christie was tense, with each snapping at the other several times.
Christie suggested Parker covered his recorder with his notepad
but Parker insisted it was in the open. Christie also asked Parker
why he didn't tell Ahenakew the comments would be "broadcast
to the world."
"First of all, I didn't
broadcast them to the world," Parker said.
Christie simply repeated the
question, to which Parker said "No." He assumed Ahenakew
knew him as Parker had been reporting on the aboriginal beat
for the newspaper for 10 years and had met previously Ahenakew.
After many questions to which Parker said he "could not
recall" the answer, Christie said in frustration, "Can't
recall, can't recall."
© The StarPhoenix (Saskatoon)
2005
Ahenakew's hate trial
begins Monday
Tim Cook,
Canadian Press, April 03, 2005
SASKATOON (CP) -- David Ahenakew's
anti-Semitic comments have already cost him his place as a respected
leader in the aboriginal community and have thrown his membership
in the Order of Canada into question.
But experts say proving his
remarks were criminally hateful is a different story.
Ahenakew's case is to go to
trial Monday in Saskatoon provincial court. He's charged under
a section of the Criminal Code that prohibits the wilful promotion
of hatred against an identifiable group. If found guilty by the
judge hearing the case, Ahenakew faces up to two years behind
bars.
"The hate propaganda sections
of the code went into effect in 1970, but we have had very few
actual prosecutions under the section because it's a quite onerous
section for the Crown," said Sanjeev Anand of the University
of Alberta. He has published several papers on hate crimes.
"There are a lot of defences
that the accused can make use of."
Anand said the Supreme Court
has set the bar high when it comes to how hateful statements
must be before they are criminal. The can't be just a flippant
offensive remark.
Stephen Jenuth, president of
the Alberta Civil Liberties Association and a lawyer who has
defended clients against hate charges, said the case has got
to be extreme.
"It has to be hatred as
opposed to anything less than hatred," Jenuth said. "I
think we recognize that it has to be a very clear and a very
intense case before we bring the prosecution."
Ahenakew, 69, was charged after
he made a speech as a Federation of Saskatchewan Indian Nations
senator in December 2002.
During the speech, he complained
about bigotry in Canadian society and accused the media of creating
racial conflict. When asked by a reporter to clarify his comments,
he said the Holocaust was justified.
"How do you get rid of
a disease like that, that's going to take over, that's going
to dominate?" he said. "The Jews damn near owned all
of Germany prior to the war. That's how Hitler came in. He was
going to make damn sure that the Jews didn't take over Germany
or Europe.
"That's why he fried six
million of those guys, you know. Jews would have owned the God
damned world. And look what they're doing. They're killing people
in Arab countries."
The comments provoked nationwide
outrage and anger. Ahenakew apologized, but was stripped of his
position with the Indian federation.
A committee began a review
of his membership in the Order of Canada, but put that on hold
when the criminal case began.
It took Saskatchewan's justice
minister six months to decide whether Ahenakew should be charged
-- a move required under this specific section of the Criminal
Code.
He pleaded not guilty in October
2003 and, after parting ways with his first lawyer Alan Gold,
recruited Victoria lawyer Doug Christie to mount his defence.
Christie, a self-professed
champion of free speech, has gained notoriety for defending other
people charged with hate-related crimes, including Alberta teacher
James Keegstra and Holocaust-denier Ernst Zundel.
He's also behind a movement
to separate the three Prairie provinces and British Columbia
from the rest of the country.
On Sunday, reporters were invited
by Christie's office to a downtown Saskatoon hotel for an afternoon
"free-speech rally."
But shortly before Christie
and Ahenakew arrived to speak to a half-dozen people who showed
up, reporters were ordered out with no explanation.
Both Christie and Ahenakew
refused to comment on the case as they went in.
Ahenakew, a father of five
from the Sandy Lake reserve in northern Saskatchewan, was 35
when he became the youngest man ever elected as chief of the
Saskatchewan Indian federation in 1968. He served a record 10
years in that job.
He also served as chief of
the Assembly of First Nations from 1982 to 1985. He was named
a member of the Order of Canada in 1978 for his work as a member
of a United Nations committee as well as the World Indigenous
Peoples Council. He was also cited for years of service to Indians
and Metis in Saskatchewan.
He is no stranger to controversy.
He once outraged aboriginal women by arguing hotly against federal
government plans to abolish an Indian Act provision that stripped
women of their Indian status if they married a non-Indian.
Ahenakew maintained that aboriginal
people themselves should determine their own membership.
© Canadian Press
- Lawyer fights for free
speech
- Ahenakew trial begins
on inciting hatred charge
Darren Bernhardt, The StarPhoenix,
April 04, 2005
People may not like the anti-Semitic
remarks made by former national First Nations chief David Ahenakew
but the Canadian Charter gives him a sovereign right to express
those views, says lawyer Doug Christie.
The Victoria-based lawyer,
famous for defending people deemed to have offended society by
provoking hatred, also said Ahenakew has been misunderstood and
unfairly portrayed in the media. Ahenakew is charged with public
incitement of hatred for remarks he made in December 2002 about
Jewish people. When Ahenakew's provincial court trial begins
today in Saskatoon, Christie will be his defence lawyer.
"I love freedom and I
love my clients. I care for people as individuals," Christie
said in a recent interview from Victoria. "I care for individuals
particularly who have the courage of their convictions to speak
their mind because they are the flagbearers of freedom. And I
don't care what their views are -- I admire their courage because
they dare speak their views."
The RCMP charged Ahenakew,
the former Assembly of First Nations (AFN) chief, with public
incitement of hatred for remarks in December 2002. At a conference
of the Federation of Saskatchewan Indian Nations (FSIN), Ahenakew
told then-StarPhoenix reporter James Parker that Adolf Hitler
was right to kill Jews during the Second World War Holocaust.
"The Jews damn near owned
all of Germany prior to the war," Ahenakew stated in the
taped interview. "That's why he fried six million of those
guys, you know. Jews would have owned the goddamned world."
The comments, while offensive
to some, are not an intentional promotion of hatred as required
for prosecution under the Criminal Code, said Christie.
"Clearly, a single speech
by an individual in an emotional state cannot carry the inference
of intention to promote hatred," he said. "It might
express hatred but it's very dubious that it would have the intention
to promote hatred, particularly when it's denied. And it's not
illegal to express hatred, I might add."
Three days after his remarks
were first published in The StarPhoenix, Ahenakew issued a tearful
apology on national television. But in October 2003, Ahenakew
pleaded not guilty. He also suggested during a magazine interview
in 2003 that one race controls the world media, referring to
the Jews.
Christie's past clients include
former SS guard and convicted murderer Michael Seifert and Holocaust
deniers Ernst Zundel and James Keegstra. Christie's esteem for
people who broach matters that challenge society applies to every
one of those clients, he said.
"I try very hard to explain
what my motives are but that's what they are -- defending the
right to free speech," he said. "I've come to realize
that in order to avoid vilification of individuals, freedom is
essential, so people can decide for themselves, without an intermediate
filter, what they think of an individual.
"People have a tough time
separating that from their own opinions, especially when they
aren't particularly tolerant themselves, you know? They think
they're liberals but they never tolerate different opinions than
their own."
Christie, himself, is an outspoken
individual and longtime separatist. He has travelled Western
Canada in an attempt to drum up support for the Western Block
Party and force a vote on uniting Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta
and British Columbia as a country apart from Canada.
"There's a great dichotomy
in the liberal mind: They like freedom for liberals but for anyone
else, heavens no. That's what we have hate law for," Christie
said.
As a result of his remarks,
Ahenakew resigned from his position as a senator for the FSIN
and from posts on several other boards and commissions. He was
also rejected as a candidate for a federally funded aboriginal
commission because the controversy over his remarks would have
overshadowed the committee's purpose. There have been calls for
his Order of Canada to be revoked, while an Edmonton man who
survived the Holocaust offered to buy Ahenakew a one-way ticket
to the former Nazi death camp in Auschwitz.
Both the FSIN and Ahenakew
blamed the media for blowing things out of proportion. Outside
the provincial courthouse when the trial date was set last November,
Ahenakew told reporters he looked forward to his day in court,
saying, "It's been a hard life for me over the last two
years as a result of some of the way (the press) played it."
"I've met David Ahenakew
and I respect him as a Native leader and I like him as a person.
The picture that emerged from the media is very seldom, with
all due respect, very seldom close to the real person,"
said Christie. "Mr. Ahenakew is a very intelligent and a
very sensitive man."
Christie could not say whether
his client will take the witness stand during the trial.
"That depends on him.
I'll be advising him as the trial progresses what I think may
or may not be required. But he will make that decision on his
own," Christie said. "I can advise him but I cannot
make those decisions. Whether we call a defence at all will depend
on what emerges at the close of the Crown's case.
"I haven't had a preliminary
hearing (to determine whether a trial is even necessary) and
I'm not going to get one so I don't know what the Crown is preparing.
The Crown, of course, pretends to make disclosure and they throw
a bunch of paper at you and say, 'There, you've had disclosure.'
But they don't tell you the people behind the paper and they
don't tell you the paper that isn't there.
"We have to move into
these battles with a flexible, open mind and react when the situation
emerges."
Crown prosecutor Brent Klause
said his case has been ready since late 2003. He has six witnesses
under subpoena, including a rabbi, but Parker and the taped interview
will be the "stars," Klause said.
"We have to prove that
he (Ahenakew) intended to wilfully promote hatred and I think
the evidence speaks for itself," said Klause. "The
conference Mr. Ahenakew was at had nothing to do with this subject
matter -- he raised it himself. He was way off the topic but
wanted to talk about it."
The Crown's case could be entirely
presented within a single day but it is likely the trial, by
judge alone, will last a week. © The StarPhoenix (Saskatoon)
2005
Ahenakew apologizes but
may still face criminal charges
CBC, Dec 18, 2002
SASKATOON - David Ahenakew
issued an abject apology on Tuesday. He says he's sorry for comments
he made last week praising Hitler and the Holocaust.
The former head of Canada's
most influential native rights group apologized and also resigned
as head of the Federation of Saskatchewan Indian Nations senate.
David Ahenakew
Ahenakew had little choice
but to face up to the controversy he stirred with his remarks.
A crush of reporters and aboriginal
people crowded into a Saskatoon hotel to hear Ahenakew's apology.
It was emotional and filled
with regret.
"I want to extend my most
sincere apologies to members of the Jewish community, to the
Holocaust survivors and your families. Such comments have no
excuse," he said.
He also apologized to the other
minorities he insulted and to Canada's aboriginal people for
causing such embarrassment.
The former head of the Assembly
of First Nations and Federation of Saskatchewan Indian Nations
made the comments to a reporter for the Saskatoon StarPhoenix,
after a profanity-laced speech last Friday.
Ahenakew said he did not believe
in the views he expressed last week.
"I was caught up in the
heat of the moment. I was attempting to spark debate on what
has been happening to our First Nations people," he said.
He said the comments were made
in anger and frustration over the plight of native people in
Canada. But he said that did not excuse his remarks.
FSIN Chief Perry Bellegarde
said he accepted Ahenakew's apology and that the native organization
also voted to formally apologize for Ahenakew's comments. Perry
Bellegarde
"We were all deeply saddened
by them," he said. "We know what racism is."
Bellegarde said the organization
will soon begin some form of discussions with the Jewish community,
"just to make sure our communities come together and share."
Canadian Jewish Congress president
Keith Landy called Ahenakew's apology a "positive gesture,"
but stopped short of accepting it.
Former CJC president Irving
Abella was not prepared to forgive Ahenakew. "He really
did not get into the sorts of things that caused him to say what
he said," Abella said.
"The comments he made
originally were so vile, so reprehensible, so monstrous, so odious
that I think it will require much more than a written apology."
While many are asking how a
native leader could hold such racist views, one person who knows
him say Ahenakew has thought this way for years. Irving Abella
Doug Cuthand used to work with
the the native leader and says Ahenakew believes what he said.
"I've heard him say this
stuff before. He knew I was appalled by it, and I thought he
was just trying to get a shock response. Over the years I've
found that he really does believe it," said Cuthand.
To make amends, Ahenakew is
bowing out of public life.
But the native statesman's
problems aren't over yet. The Saskatchewan government still wants
the RCMP to see if Ahenakew broke Canada's hate crime laws.
Abella is also calling for
Ahenakew to be stripped of his Order of Canada.
Saskatoon Jewish Community
Shocked by Ahenakew's Racist Remarks
- The Press Release, December
16, 2002
Congregation Agudas Israel
and the Sas- katoon Lodge of B'nai Brith Canada are shocked and
saddened by the recent remarks of Mr. David Ahenakew, a senator
and former leader of the Federation of Saskatchewan Indian Nations
(FSIN) and the Assembly of First Nations (AFN).
His racist and anti-Semitic
comments were made on Friday, December 13 during an address to
a FSIN conference in Saskatoon. The following press release was
immediately sent to the media:
"Mr. Ahenakew's comments
have created a profound sense of dismay and disgust within our
community", said Susanne Kaplan, president of Congregation
Agudas Israel, "particularly in light of our historical
relationship with the aboriginal community, and the fact that
Jewish and aboriginal people share a common history of persecution,
bigotry and racism.
While Mr. Ahenakew's remarks
were directed predominantly at Jews, we would like to acknowledge
and extend our support to other groups that were also offended
and attacked by Mr. Ahenakew."
"We acknowledge that chief
Bellegarde has disassociated the FSIN from Mr. Ahenakew's remarks,
and are encouraged by his declared intent to meet with the Saskatchewan
Jewish community" said Briane Scharfstein, president of
Saskatoon B'nai Brith.
"We hope and trust that
the FSIN will respond appropriately in the near future".
In the meantime, many Jewish and non- Jewish families, including
aboriginals, are left bewildered and uncertain of how to explain
this unexpected and extreme example of racist commentary from
a previously respected aboriginal leader.
|
Truth can never be
told so as to be understood, and not be believ'd. William Blake, The Proverbs of Hell
