Jewish, First Nations groups try to mend fences after Ahenakew

Officials with the Canadian Jewish Congress met privately Tuesday with the leader of the Federation of Saskatchewan Indian Nations, in a bid toimprove relations between the communitiesin the wake of the David Ahenakew controversy.

Relations between the two groups have been strained recently as the Ahenakew case returned to the public eye. Ahenakew, a former head of the Assembly of First Nations and of the FSIN,gained instant notoriety in 2002 after making anti-Semitic remarks to a reporter following a First Nations health conference in Saskatoon.

Ahenakew said Jewish people had been trying to take over Europe prior to the Second World War and that's why Nazi leader Adolf Hitler "fried" six million of them. He also likened Jews to a disease.

He was removed from the FSIN senate, but in March, chiefs invited him back. That ignited a new controversy that ended when Ahenakew said he wouldn't proceed with being reinstated.

Canadian Jewish Congress president Bernie Farber said the meeting with FSIN chief Lawrence Joseph in Ottawa on Tuesdayhas given him some things to think about and there will be a followup.

"It's a challenge that is not going to be resolved in the space of one meeting, but will hopefully be resolved in the space of our ongoing dialogue," he said.

Joseph, who suggested the meeting,said he was pleased with the discussions and plans on taking representatives from the Jewish group on a tour of Saskatchewan reserves.

Joseph said Saskatchewan's chiefs continue to condemn Ahenakew's remarks, although he also believes Ahenakew didn't mean them.

"Well, with all respect to those that he's damaged, I never believed that those were his views at any point in time," he said. "He's been a public servant of high standing and at no point in time has he ever been this volatile, in my view, as far as focusing on one group of people in a very negative way."

Ahenakew was convicted of promotion of hatred in 2005, although that was overturned on appeal. A new trial is scheduled for November.