Canada still trying to protect Aboriginal hate speech

"Native Americans" are "First nations" in Canada and one of their leaders unleashed a classic antisemitic tirade a few years ago. Anybody else who did that in Canada would have been convicted of an offence but the Canadians have been straining their brains ever since to find some way of getting such a privileged person off the hook. They have managed so far but it is still going all the way through the judicial system.

"The second hate-crime trial for disgraced former national aboriginal leader David Ahenakew began yesterday in Saskatoon, and already there is speculation the high-profile case will eventually wind up at the Supreme Court.

The case began on Dec. 13, 2002, when Mr. Ahenakew, 75, told a Saskatoon StarPhoenix reporter that Jews were a "disease" and Adolf Hitler was trying to "clean up the world" when he "fried" six million of the "guys" during the Second World War. The conversation was taped.

In 2005, the former head of the Assembly of First Nations was convicted of the rare crime of willfully promoting hatred against an identifiable group and fined $1,000. The original trial judge rejected arguments by Mr. Ahenakew's lawyer that his client considered the conversation he had with the reporter to be private and never intended for the comments to be published.

Mr. Ahenakew appealed the conviction and it was overturned in 2006. The Crown appealed that decision to the province's top court. Earlier this year, the Saskatchewan Court of Appeal dismissed the appeal and unanimously ruled that while Mr. Ahenakew's remarks about Jews were "shocking, brutal and hurtful," that didn't mean he broke the law.

Source

Note that James Keegstra said similar things and his conviction was upheld by the Canadian Supreme court. But Keegstra is white. And Ernst Zuendel, also white, was deported for saying similar things.

The "out" that the Canadians are trying to manufacture for the privileged person is that what he said was more private than what the white guys said -- even though Mr Privilege in fact said it to a reporter interviewing him.