Ahenakew Gets His Due

On July 8, 2005, David Ahenakew was convicted of spreading hate.  He was fined $1,000. 

I wrote about Mr. Ahenakew in December, 2002, shortly after the news broke about his boneheaded comments.  You may recall that he was a former leader of the Assembly of First Nations and was a member of the Order of Canada.

He called the Jews a “disease”, claimed that Hitler had “cleaned up a hell of a lot of things” by “frying” six million of them.  He made these comments in a taped interview with a reporter.

Back then, I said that I doubted that Ahenakew's comments were sufficient to land a conviction for promoting hatred.  (I was wrong.)  I did say that, “in any event, a prosecution is unnecessary.  He will be punished enough without being charged.”

I also said:  “He'll lose his Order of Canada, I bet.”  I was right about that one.  He was stripped of his Order of Canada on July 11.  Of course, he has refused to return the pin.  Stubborn to the end!

He has also claimed that he will appeal his conviction.  Other than the lawyers, academics and politicians who are concerned about the legislation, who cares?  He is a pariah and always will be, for the simple reason that, at his trial, he stood by his comments.

For those who think that $1,000 fine is not enough punishment, think of the non-judicial punishment that he has endured. 

He was, at the time he made the comments, the head of the Federation of Saskatchewan Indian Nations senate.  He resigned from that post soon after. He’ll never speak on behalf of the aboriginal community again.

He is only the second person to lose his Order of Canada, putting him in the company of Alan Eagleson. 

He is now a convicted criminal and, given the conviction, can be safely called a racist.  As I said in 2002:  “He'll spend the rest of his life being ignored, disrespected and avoided.  No-one with any political aspirations will want to be associated with him.  He will no longer be ‘a respected native leader’, but an ostracized racist who was too stupid to know to keep his mouth shut.”

On another subject, I note that Toronto averted another garbage strike.  You may recall the garbage strike in 2002.  Here’s what I don’t get:  Why doesn’t the City of Toronto negotiate a term so that the next contract expires in December?  Why do they keep doing contracts that expire in July? 

Of course, the union for the outside workers loves to have a contract end in July.  Rotting, festering garbage and no pools for the kids is pressure on the City to cave in.  People would have much less of a problem with garbage piling up in the frozen months of winter.  Only the Polar Bear Swim Clubs might have a problem with the pools being shut in December.