Meaningless apologies

Former First Nations leader David Ahenakew has repeated comments of the sort he was figuratively pilloried for late last year and for which he issued an apology. In a May interview with a reporter for the national arts and politics publication This Magazine, Ahenakew was circumspect only in his choice not to name the race he claims controls the world's media.

"When a group of people, a race of people can control the world media, then there's got to be something done about that," Ahenakew was quoted as saying. He didn't need to name the race.

Since the comments were first publicized, Ahenakew has not come forward to deny he made such comments, so we assume the report is accurate. Which raises several questions: Should a public apology be offered (or accepted) if it doesn't represent a demonstrated change of heart? And, should we expect an individual whose offensive views have presumably evolved over a lifetime, motivated by who-knows-what influences, to change those attitudes just because he got caught? Is Ahenakew solely to blame for this apparent back-sliding?

Yes, Ahenakew must take responsibility and be held to account for his appalling views. But the incident reflects a flaw in the way we as a society deal with such cases.

Last winter, when Ahenakew first came to our attention over his pro-Holocaust remarks, the former Saskatchewan native leader apologized and many Canadians put the matter behind them.

There is simply no easy solution when ideas like Ahenakew's emerge from their darkness. It reflects a failure of him as an individual to develop the fair-minded values expected in a civil society. But it also represents a failure of society to inculcate our values in Ahenakew and others like him. In accepting his apology last winter, we let him and ourselves off the hook.

No more apologies from Ahenakew. They mean nothing. Let us instead use his words to motivate us to fight against bigotry wherever we find it. That, at least, might mean something.