Reporter tells court about interview with Ahenakew

The former newspaper journalist who questioned native leader David Ahenakew about his statements on Jews was on the witness stand Tuesday at Ahenakew's hate crime trial.

Ahenakew, 75,beingtriedin Saskatoon for a second time on a charge of wilfully promoting hatred. James Parker was a reporter with the Saskatoon StarPhoenix on Dec. 12, 2002 when he was assigned to cover a First Nations conferencedealing withhealth information consent forms.

Parker told the court he heard David Ahenakew's address to the delegates, including his comments about Jews and the Second World War.

A videotape of Ahenakew's 48-minute speech was shown to provincial court Judge Wilfred Tucker on the first day of the trial Monday.

Toward the end of his speech, Ahenakew talked about being in the military for 16 years, and living in Germany for two years after the war. He often played soccer with Germans.

"They used to tell me that you guys are blessed. What we know about the Indians in Canada .But that blessing is being destroyed by the immigrants that are going over there. Especially the Jews.

"The Second World War was created by the Jews."

Parker testified he found the remarks provocative and decided to do a story about it. He said other speakers followed Ahenakew. After they were done, he approached Ahenakew and asked for an interview.

The recorder was held close enough to Ahenakew's face to get good audio about four or five inches away, he said.

The interview ended when Ahenakew walked away, Parker said. By the end, Ahenakew was frustrated and had had enough, he said.

At Ahenakew's first trial, the judge ruled that it was the comments to Parker that violated the law on hate speech.

In those comments, which were published in the newspaper, Ahenakew called Jews a "disease" and expressed support for Adolf Hitler's genocidal policies. The conviction was later overturned on appeal, setting the stage for this week's retrial.

Also testifying this week was Lawrence Joseph, chief of the Federation of Saskatchewan Indian Nations. Joseph was a vice-chief of the organization in charge of health issues at the conference where Ahenakew gave his speech.

On Monday, Joseph described Parker as an "arrogant, uncaring" reporter who "tripped over himself running" toward Ahenakew following the speech to get the interview.

The group had ousted Ahenakew as a chairman following the incident, but earlier this year quietly voted to reinstate him as a senator. Both the federal and provincial governments loudly condemned the move.

Amid the backlash, Ahenakew declined the reinstatement.

The trial is expected to last a week.