Hate lives cozily among us

Page 4

Now that a certain calm has come to this community after four days of sickening tumult that was caused by the hate-filled spewing of Dr. David Ahenekew at a meeting in Saskatchewan in December, it's time for a little sober reflection.

Ahenekew's public rant on Jews and the Holocaust and Hitler, as ugly as it was, provides us with an opportunity to talk about this issue of racism in an open and honest manner.

Racism in Canada lives in dark corners. We react strongly to it when it comes into the light, beating it back with a vengeance, but if we were honest with ourselves, we'd admit that we don't really want to know how it thrives there in the shadows.

Hate is fed by ignorance and incompetence. Silence provides hate sanctuary. When we turn a blind eye to it, in whatever form hate takes, we condone its existence. When we find hate within ourselves and we fail to recognize it and rout it out, we allow it to propagate. When we find it in others and don't banish it through whatever means we have at our disposal, we are complicit when it does harm.

Dr. Ahenakew's revisionist version of history clearly put him in the realm of idiots, but there is something that scares us more.

The former Federation of Saskatchewan Indian Nations Senator was a leader. He was a role model and an inspiration to the current generation of leaders in the province. In hindsight, we must now ask, are there other demented minds at the controls?

We wonder this because of the initial reaction to Ahenakew's comments by the Saskatchewan First Nations leadership.

After reporter James Parker of the Saskatoon StarPhoenix caught Ahenakew's vitriol on tape, he naturally went to Ahenakew's leaders for comment.

"Whatever he says personally is an opinion as a war veteran. He has that right," said FSIN Vice-Chief Lawrence Joseph.

"He's entitled to his opinion," said FSIN Grand Chief Perry Bellegarde, who also advised the reporter not to quote Ahenakew.

Although in time they did the right thing, the leaders of the FSIN did not distinguish themselves in the beginning. And the political spin they put on it after the fact seems hypocritical in the extreme.

Matthew Coon Come passed the test with flying colors, however.

He has been criticized for not finding a way to lead the Assembly of First Nations in a unified, positive direction. He has been seen as an impotent leader who has been nullified by a divided and uncooperative executive board. But Coon Come responded strongly and with breath-taking quickness to this situation.

His immediate condemnation of Ahenakew's remarks left no doubt that this was the real Matthew Coon Come standing up and saying what he believed. He clearly did not wait for his board to hash out a clever response. He saw a wrong and he did what he had to do.

He seized the opportunity to make a stand against a vile alliance of evil-prejudice, racism and bigotry. He has fought this enemy before, and judging from the response we got from other leaders, he's not alone in his hell-bent desire to defeat it.

The events that saw one man ruin his own life's work in the most jaw-dropping way are over. Ahenakew apologized. He resigned from public life. And so should he have done. He's left us with a queer legacy though. A story of how hate destroys the hater. We should tell it to our children. And let this story never be forgotten.