Controversial Native Leader David Ahenakew Dies

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Controversial native leader David Ahenakew dies
Canwest News Service: Saturday, March 13, 2010 10:57 AM

Former Saskatchewan native leader David Ahenakew, who fought a high-profile legal battle after he was accused of inciting hatred against Jews, has died after a long battle with cancer. He was 76.

SHELLBROOK, Sask. " Former Saskatchewan native leader David Ahenakew, who fought a high-profile legal battle after he was accused of inciting hatred against Jews, has died after a long battle with cancer, according to media reports.

The 76-year-old reportedly died Friday night in hospital in Shellbrook, about 140 kilometres north of Saskatoon.

On Wednesday, lawyer Doug Christie, who represented Ahenakew after he was charged following a 2002 incident in which he praised Hitler and blamed the Jews for the Second World War, said his client has been ill for some time.

Ahenakew found out he had cancer shortly before his retrial on the hatred charge began in November 2008 but kept it quiet, Christie said.

Christie said the cancer has progressed since the trial ended. "He's been coping with a lot of problems with his health," he said.

A former chief of the Federation of Saskatchewan Indian Nations, Ahenakew was convicted of inciting hatred in 2005, but the conviction was overturned on appeal.

A second trial found Ahenakew not guilty.

The native leader's fall from grace started in December 2002, when he told delegates to a health conference that when he was a young man stationed in Germany, people told him Jews created the Second World War.

Later, he a reporter that Hitler "cleaned up a lot of things," and did the right thing when "he fried six million of those guys."

The taped interview was broadcast across Canada and caused a massive public outcry. Ahenakew made a tearful, televised apology and resigned his seat on numerous boards and commissions, and as chair of the Federation of Saskatchewan Indian Nations senate.

He was later stripped of the Order of Canada.

The judge in his retrial last year told Ahenakew his comments were "revolting, disgusting and untrue," but said he did not have the intent needed to be guilty of a charge of inciting hatred.

With files from Saskatoon StarPhoenix