They finally got him off

Ahenakew found not guilty. A Canadian Indian can utter the most vile antisemitic rants to a reporter but that is OK. It is not what you say but what group you belong to in Canada. Forget any idea of equal justice for all. There is plenty of bigotry in Canada: official bigotry in favor of selected minorities.

"Just minutes earlier, a Saskatchewan judge had found Mr. Ahenakew not guilty of willfully promoting hatred, even as he scolded him for "revolting" comments. In court Monday, Mr. Ahenakew, 75, looked like a man at prayer. Freshly buzz-cut, he crossed his arms and closed his eyes as the judge read a 19-page decision. He didn't flinch when the judge used "disgusting" and "inhumane" to describe the former native leader's comments on December 13, 2002.

On that day, Mr. Ahenakew capped off a keynote speech to a native health conference with an incoherent stream of slurs against "goddamn immigrants." During the public speech, he alleged that Jews started the Second World War. Afterwards, a Saskatoon Star-Phoenix reporter pressed Mr. Ahenakew about the remarks, asking how he could say 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?" Mr. Ahenakew responded. He went on to say the world would "be owned by the Jews right now" if Hitler had not "cleaned up a hell of a lot of things."

A 2005 trial found him guilty of willfully promoting hatred and levied a $1,000 fine. The decision was overturned 11 months later and a new trial ordered. During the retrial last fall, Mr. Ahenakew insisted he did not "hate Jews but I hate what they do."

While the judge Monday called Mr. Ahenakew's initial comments "revolting, disgusting and untrue," he did not find that the former chief ever intended to espouse those views publicly. [Giving a speech at a conference and answering questions from a reporter is not "public"? What a crock!]

Source

All we see here is totally dishonest judicial reasoning leading to a foreordained conclusion.

Posted by John Ray.