What good will come of prosecution?

Page 5

David Ahenakew is a portrait of tragedy. A man who ruined a lifetime of hard work by opening his mouth and letting the world hear that he holds some monumentally stupid-and, yes, hateful-opinions.

But Mr. Ahenakew is not so foolish as to ever say anything along those lines again, especially in public and especially to a journalist. He is disgraced. Knocked out of the political game he played with such gusto for so long. Left on the sidelines, a reminder to all that hate consumes the hater.

Why charge him with a criminal offence? What's to be gained?

If he truly believes those horrible, hateful, anti-Semitic things he said, then even 50 years in prison isn't going to change his mind. Is the humiliation of attending court and going through the process of being tried and possibly convicted of spreading hate going to be any worse than the humiliation he endured at the centre of the media circus that followed his remarks? Is justice about punishment or rehabilitation? If it's the latter, don't you think the man has learned his lesson?

We note that independent Member of Parliament Jim Pankiw continues to send out his taxpayer-funded pamphlets calling Native leaders racists and criminals. We note Pankiw lives in the same general neighborhood as Ahenakew. We note that Pankiw is non-Native and hasn't been charged while Ahenakew, a Native man, has been charged after both were investigated by the same Saskatoon-based police service. We know that Saskatoon is reeling from the revelation that many members of its city police department abandoned Native people on the outskirts of town, sometimes in frigidly cold weather, and they have been doing so for at least 27 years without anyone saying a word. We know some Native people died in the same general area where police have been known to drop people off.

We wonder about a backlash after Native leaders so mercilessly forced non-Native people in that city to take a look at what has been tolerated in the Saskatoon Police Service and why. We wonder if there isn't some element of that, conscious or not, in the decision to charge Ahenekew, a ruined old man.

National Chief Matthew Coon Come is right, we believe. Taking this tragedy to trial will provide a stage to every white supremacist, Nazi idiot within hundreds of miles. Don't give these people an excuse to crawl out from underneath their rocks.

Drop the charges. If Ahenekew ever says or does anything along those lines again, then put him away and lose the key.

Welcome to Alberta

With the Assembly of First Nations' annual general assembly scheduled for our town this month, a lot of our friends who don't get out this way very often will be in our own backyard.

We think that's great. We're already in a celebrating mood as we mark the 20th anniversary of the Aboriginal Multi-Media Society, Windspeaker's parent society. Plus we've recently moved into a new and much improved (and much more spacious) building in northwest Edmonton. We're just a 15-minute drive from downtown, where the AGA-and most importantly, the national chief's election-will be taking place. In the spirit of western hospitality, we'd like to take this opportunity to welcome you to come and look around our new headquarters.

We hear the turnout for the AFN meeting is expected to be high. If you're going to be one of the many visitors to the City of Champions, we'd love to show you around.

On the subject of the election, after talking to all the candidates and their teams, we believe this is going to be an important moment in the history of First Nations' politics. We'd like to wish all the candidates the best of luck. More importantly, we'd like to wish the people who decide who the national chief will be for the next three years clear minds and lots of wisdom. It looks to us like it's going to be a difficult choice to make.