Representatives of First Nations and Jewish organizations who met in Ottawa last week are touting the goodwill and co-operative spirit of the meeting and downplaying any lingering after effects of the David Ahenakew affair.
Chief Lawrence Joseph of the Federation of Saskatchewan Indian Nations (FSIN) said contrary to some media reports, there are no “strained relations” with the Jewish community.
“I have never expressed or experienced anything but good relations with the Jewish community,” Joseph told The CJN.
“Ahenakew is an individual and he does not represent the 74 First Nations organizations that I do.
“He’s an individual who made a horrendous mistake and he doesn’t reflect the character of all the First Nations people,” he said. “We 100 per cent condemn it.”
Ahenakew, a former leader of the FSIN and the Assembly of First Nations, was charged with promoting hatred of Jews after he told a reporter covering a FSIN health conference that Jews were a disease and Hitler was justified in killing them.
A trial court found him guilty, but the conviction was overturned on appeal and a new trial ordered.
The retrial is scheduled to begin in the fall, but about a month ago, the FSIN reportedly reinstated Ahenakew to the position with the FSIN senate that he lost after his comments were reported.
Ahenakew turned down the seat after federal and provincial ministers threatened to reconsider their support of the FSIN.
Joseph said the FSIN never reinstated Ahenakew but only had been asked to take the first step in that direction. (News reports at the time stated the FSIN legislative assembly held a closed-door meeting in which it voted 43-3 to reinstate Ahenakew.)
Joseph said the FSIN will follow a clearer and more transparent voting process in any future bid to reinstate Ahenakew.
He said the meeting with Canadian Jewish Congress and Saskatchewan Jewish community leaders was a first step toward fostering closer ties between the two communities. Part of their discussion focused on putting in place an arrangement that would allow Ahenakew to demonstrate that he has truly repented for his remarks, Joseph said.
Congress CEO Bernie Farber, who attended the 21/2 hour meeting last week, said much of the discussion focused on ways the two organizations could address issues of common concern.
Native treaty rights and the residential schools scandal are two issues where the organization could co-operate, Farber said.
Discussion of the Ahenakew issue “proved more challenging,” he continued. “They wanted us to understand their tradition on forgiveness and redemption. We have a tradition in Judaism on that,” he said.
“They wanted us to understand their position. At the same time, we wanted them to understand our position.”
“Now we have a starting point to work towards that goal… We are far from any conclusion here, but we are on the road to dialogue.”
Farber said the meeting was “frank, passionate and challenging, and in the end, both [sides] came away with a better understanding of each other.”
He said Congress has accepted a FSIN invitation to visit Saskatchewan reserves sometime in the summer to see first hand the conditions Saskatchewan Indians face.
Although contact with the FSIN is a recent development, Congress has for 10 years pursued closer ties with First Nations, Farber said.
Joining Farber at the meeting were Congress co-presidents Rabbi Reuven Bulka and Sylvain Abitbol; Wendy Lampert, Congress’ director of community relations; Jim Scharfstein, a Saskatchewan member of Congress’ board of directors, and David Katzman, president of Congregation Agudas Israel in Saskatoon.