Honour Restored

Not guilty. What a phrase that is. Forgiveness of presumed trespasses. Not responsible for the claims of malfeasance filed against an honourable man. A man of great esteem in his peoples' estimation. A tribal elder, one whose lifetime has been spent in searching for his peoples' salvation from the damnation that modernity and history alike have mired them in. He led his Saskatchewan band to oil royalty freedom, and he fought for his country during the Second World War.

And he somehow managed throughout the course of his life to nurse a virulent hatred of Jews. Only he knows whether that hatred developed before or after his having been exposed to German public opinion post-WWII, when he was posted there as a Canadian soldier. There, in conversations with Germans, he said he was convinced by their arguments that it was Jews who started the war. That being so, the Nazis were certainly justified in endeavours to annihilate the Jews.

And he said as much during a health conference in Saskatoon back in 2002 where, addressing the people assembled there, he placed the blame on Jews for causing the Second World War. How that ties into a health conference is puzzling, but these things happen, one supposes. And when a reporter present at the time asked him later to further explain his remarks, he was treated to quite the extemporaneous little dissertation on Jews.

“How do you get rid of a disease like that, that’s going to take over, that’s going to dominate?” Ahenakew explained helpfully. “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.”

His audience didn't seem unduly concerned at the time, but when the reporter did his duty and reported what he'd heard, an astonished public reacted, and not positively. Mr. Ahenakew must certainly have been just as astonished at the reaction his comments elicited. Outrage? At him? He caused sufficient embarrassment to the Saskatchewan First Nations that they dropped him as a senator - at the urging of the federal agency overseeing them, admittedly.

In his 'not guilty' finding, Saskatchewan provincial court Judge Wilfred Tucker, although personally deploring the outrageously deprecating statements, said he found no ill motive could be ascribed to Mr. Ahenakew. His interpretation of events were that there was no initial, planned intent to spread hatred. Well, he certainly wasn't spreading the good news of the brotherhood of man, inclusively and without rancour to any.

This was a legalistic, subjective opinion. Somewhat lacking, to some, in interpretation, but evidently not the wounded and stricken representatives of the Canadian Jewish community, who seemed to indicate that they nevertheless respected the judge's finding (would that be the judge's opinion?). They were, they claimed, content with the judge's having expressed his own denunciatory opinion of Mr. Ahenakew's hateful remarks.

Personally, it would take a whole lot more than that for me to feel content about the outcome of this second trial. As a Jew, I feel let down, concerned that the law as interpreted by this judge has been insufficiently involved in persuading me that this reckless and incendiary demeaning of a people, the horrible assumed agreement that a monumental number of people were deservedly obliterated from the face of life can be considered a non-lethal statement of someone's belief.

It is no comfort to me to hear from this humane-afflicted individual that "I would say I understand Hitler had his reasons, but I still don't support them", in an exculpatory statement of undiminished belief. That he has been found not guilty of promoting hatred of an identifiable group brings great comfort, however, to Mr. Ahenakew, for he has said "thank God it's over, and I mean that. It was awful."

Was it now? To be held to account for stating an abhorrently-warped view of fellow humans, of feelingly and empathetically validating the need to act, to remove the disease of Jewish culpability in war-mongering and globe-controlling enterprises from the land of the innocent and the free-minded?

Now, ostensibly relieved that his honour has been restored, he will be welcomed back as an honoured senior to the Federation of Saskatchewan Indian Nations. Where, at future events he will once again be able to deliver himself of his odious opinions, spreading hate among his confreres.

Shame on them all.