Dancing on the head of a pinhead

David Ahenakew's hate crime conviction overturned by Saskatchewan judge:

A Saskatchewan judge has overturned the hate crime conviction of disgraced First Nations leader David Ahenakew and ordered a new trial.

In a 35-page decision released Thursday, Chief Justice Robert Laing of Court of Queen's Bench said the original trial judge did not properly assess whether the former head of the Assembly of First Nations had the requisite intent to be convicted of a hate crime.

This is absurdity squared. First absurdity: pretending that a statement that Jews are a "disease" who deserved to be "fried" was not hate speech. Second absurdity: prosecuting people for their opinions, however addled. MY SATURDAY COLUMN explores the argument in more detail.