Regina, Canada – Court Orders New Trial for Former Aboriginal Leader

Regina, Canada A new trial has been ordered in the David Ahenakew hate-crime case.

The Saskatchewan Court of Appeal dismissed the Crown's appeal today against a decision that overturned the former Assembly of First Nations chief's 2002 conviction for willfully promoting hatred.

"The Court of Appeal agreed with the Court of Queen's Bench," a case summary reads. "It said Mr. Ahenakew's comments, on any standard, were shocking, brutal and hurtful but noted that this was not the measure of the provisions of the Criminal Code that prescribe the offence of wilfully promoting hatred."

The former First Nations leader was convicted of a hate crime, for comments that compared Jews to a "disease."

A Queen's Bench judge overturned the conviction, saying the trial hadn't addressed Ahenakew's intent.

At that appeal hearing in June it ended in a shouting match on the court house steps between Ahenakew, his lawyer and a supporter and a lawyer from the Jewish advocacy group B'nai Birth.