Indian leader applauds Hitler
Anti-Jewish diatribe prompts demand for hate-crimes probe in Saskatchewan space
By ERIN ANDERSSEN
Monday, December 16, 2002 – Print Edition, Page A1
A prominent Jewish group in Canada is calling for a hate-crimes investigation after a former national native chief publicly applauded Adolf Hitler for the six million Jews "fried" in the Holocaust.
Keith Landy, president of the Canadian Jewish Congress, suggested the Saskatchewan government consider charging David Ahenakew, a former leader of the Assembly of First Nations, Canada's most prominent native group.
"There's no doubt that the police should be looking into this," Mr. Landy said. "These statements cannot be made with impunity."
Mr. Ahenakew was quoted as saying that Hitler's genocide against Jews and others was an attempt to "clean up the world."
"That's how Hitler came in," he told the Saskatoon Star Phoenix. "He was going to make damn sure that the Jews didn't take over Germany and Europe. That's why he fried six million of those guys, you know. Jews would have owned the goddamned world. And look what they're doing. They're killing people in Arab countries."
Mr. Ahenakew, 68, who headed the AFN in the 1980s and remains a prominent native statesman, made the remarks after addressing a meeting of the Federation of Saskatchewan Indian Nations, a group he once led. The subject of the meeting was a new Health Canada policy requiring natives to sign consent forms releasing medical information before they can obtain services.
In his speech, the Star Phoenix reported, Mr. Ahenakew said that while he served with the Canadian Army in Germany in the 1950s, the Germans had told him the Jews started the Second World War.
Asked by a reporter to clarify his statement, he said he agreed with the Germans, and in reference to the Holocaust, responded, "How do you get rid of a disease like that, that's going to take over, that's going to dominate?"
When it was pointed out to him that the Nazis had committed genocide, he said: "I don't support Hitler. But he cleaned up a hell of a lot of things, didn't he? You would be owned by Jews right now the world over."
Mr. Ahenakew told the gathering that he has warned provincial officials "40 years down the road, we're going to be taking over [because of population growth among Indian people]. We're going to be the government. You [non-Indians] are going to be the Indians, and we're going to be the bosses. And you [the government] better start preparing right now."
He also complained about bigotry in city schools.
"My great-grandson goes to school here in Saskatoon. These goddamned immigrants -- East Indians, Pakistanis, Afghanistan, whites and so forth -- call him a dirty little Indian. He's the cleanest of the old goddamn works there. That's what I'm saying. It's starting right there, at six years old."
Mr. Ahenakew could not be reached for comment yesterday, but he was expected to meet today with the chief of the Saskatchewan native organization, Perry Bellegarde, to discuss his statements.
Native leaders have made efforts to distance themselves from his comments. A spokesperson for the AFN stressed that the national association does not share his views. Mr. Bellegarde, who was not at the meeting, called the comments shocking and pointed out that Mr. Ahenakew is no longer an elected member of the federation.
As a former provincial leader, he holds the honorary title of senator. He has a reputation for bold talk; most recently, he was quoted in July warning of an impending "physical confrontation" over native issues that neither the police nor the army would be able to stop.
"We respect David," Mr. Bellegarde said yesterday. "But his views on the Holocaust are his own personal views. His language and train of thought must have gotten off track. We don't try to push people apart and burn bridges."
Mr. Bellegarde said he plans to send letters of apology to Canada's Jewish organizations.
Members of the Saskatoon Jewish community met yesterday to decide what action to take. Susanne Kaplan, president of the congregation Agudas Israel, said that she now plans to wait to hear from native leaders.
A criminal charge under the country's hate laws would require the consent of Saskatchewan's Attorney-General. The offence, defined as advocating and promoting genocide, carried a maximum sentence of five years in prison.
Mr. Landy said his group will review the process for filing a complaint and gather input from other Jewish representatives in Saskatchewan.
"One has to question what is the motivation and how deeply held are these views," said Mr. Landy.
Another former head of the Assembly of First Nations, Phil Fontaine, called Mr. Ahenakew's comments intolerable, but declined to comment on whether they constituted a hate crime.
"[Aboriginals] have been subject to all kinds of similar experience with racism; I don't know why we should turn around and inflict that on other people. You can imagine if it was directed at us as first nations people; there would be a great hue and cry." |
