Former aboriginal leader who called Jews a disease dead at 76

SHELLBROOK, Sask. - David Ahenakew, a former Saskatchewan aboriginal leader who was stripped of the Order of Canada for calling Jews a "disease", has died in hospital after a long battle with cancer. He was 76.

Lawrence Joseph, chief of the Federation of Saskatchewan Indian Nations, said Ahenakew was surrounded by family when he died around suppertime Friday at a hospital in Shellbrook, about 150 kilometres north of Saskatoon.

"It's a sad day for all of us," Joseph said. He did not want to comment further.

Last year, Ahenakew was acquitted of a hate crime charge over remarks he made about Jews to a reporter in 2002. He was found guilty at his first trial on the charge and fined $1,000, but the conviction was overturned on appeal in 2006 and a new trial was ordered.

Judge Wilfred Tucker chastised Ahenakew for his comments, which included blaming Jews for starting the Second World War. Tucker called the words "revolting, disgusting and untrue," but ruled Ahenakew didn't intend to promote hate when he uttered them.

Ahenakew was 35 when he became the youngest man ever elected as chief of the Federation of Saskatchewan Indian Nations in 1968. He served a record 10 years in that job and was seen as part of a new generation of well educated, energetic young aboriginal politicians.

A father of five from the Sandy Lake reserve in northern Saskatchewan, Ahenakew was the first elected president of the Assembly of First Nations in 1982.

In 1984, he outraged aboriginal women by arguing against federal government plans to abolish an Indian Act provision that stripped women of their Indian status if they married a non-Indian. Ahenakew maintained that aboriginal people themselves should determine their own membership.

He was ousted as leader of the assembly in 1985 amid allegations of financial mismanagement and later was among six Saskatchewan men accused of using kickbacks from government grants and contracts to pay for the failed 1984 Liberal leadership bid of the former Indian affairs minister John Munro. The charges were eventually dropped.

Ahenakew warned at a meeting of the Assembly of First Nations two years ago that if aboriginal grievances were not taken seriously, there would be violent consequences.

"The way things are happening in this country with Indian Affairs is leading to physical confrontation," he said at the time.

"We had it here a few years ago, but when it breaks out across the country, you won't have the army, you won't have the police forces - you won't have anything to stop the destruction that will take place."

Ahenakew played an integral role in establishing the Saskatchewan Indian Federated College at the University of Regina and held an honorary degree from the university for his human rights work. He was also known as a builder of the Federation of Saskatchewan Indian Nations.

Ahenakew offered a tearful public apology over his remarks about Jews, but it wasn't enough to quell the public outrage over his comments. He lost his position as a senator with the Indian federation as well as his Order of Canada.

At his second trial on hate charges he testified that he doesn't hate Jews but still believes they caused the Second World War.

"Everybody says I'm a Jew-hater," he told court. "I don't hate the Jews, but I hate what they do to people."