Perhaps you should have a look at Section 223(1) of the Criminal Code.

Morgentaler was himself a Holocaust survivor.

As for Ahenakew having an Order of Canada, there are many qualifications required. You don’t just automatically get one for not having a criminal record. Similarly, you can be stripped of one, not just for getting a criminal record, but for conduct that seriously violates the spirit that the award stands for.

The award is given to those who “desire a better country,” according to the Order’s Latin motto.

Whether Ahenakew has a criminal record for his speech or not, he does not deny making anti-Semitic statements.

He referred to Jews as a “disease” that was trying to take over Germany and that continues to control the media.

The statements may not have fit the definition of the “willful” promotion of hatred (I frankly agree with the Court of Appeal). At the very least, though, you’d have to agree that the statements weren’t very nice nor very accurate. He was expressing a legitimate, but ignorant, opinion. Expressing that opinion was offensive and divisive, even if it was not criminally hateful.

I don’t think that such statements are in the spirit of unity that the Order of Canada is all about.

There is justification for taking away Mr. Akenahew’s Order of Canada, whether or not his criminal conviction is restored.

Dr. Henry Morgentaler blamed the Holocaust on unwanted and unloved children lashing out at their parents (Morgentaler’s honorary doctorate acceptance speech at Western University),
and he went on to kill 100000 of them, by his own account, before they were even born and had a chance to harm anyone.

David Ahenakew was dragged thru the mud for seven years, his Order of Canada was taken away from him and now he faces his second criminal trial.

Dr. Morgentaler, on the other hand, for his efforts to eliminate “undesirables” was honoured with number of honorary doctorates, and recently with an Order of Canada.

According to federal legislation Dr. Henry Morgentaler did not qualify as Order of Canada recipient due to his prior unpardoned criminal conviction and past findings of medical malpractice.

David Ahenakew’s criminal conviction was overturned on appeal so according to federal legislation decision to strip him of his Order of Canada was quite shaky from legal point of view.

Because of recent uproar over Dr. Morgentaler fiasco and scandal of CHRC invertigators acting as Internet hate mongers public perception has changed and it seems that David Ahenakew’s Order of Canada was taken away from him hastily to say in nicely. There are two solutions to that problem: one is to return his Order of Canada to him with apologies (chances of that happening are slim to none) or try him once again and this time around find him guilty (what was not quite legal than becomes legal after the fact and justifies prior decision to take away his Order of Canada).

So, it seems that David Ahenakew is a collateral victim of Dr. Morgentaler fiasco.