SHELLBROOK, Sask. — CTV Regina is reporting that David Ahenakew is near death in a Saskatchewan hospital.
The station says Ahenakew, 76, is battling cancer and is in a hospital in Shellbrook, north of Saskatoon.
The former chief of the Assembly of First Nations was granted the Order of Canada in 1978, but in 2005 was stripped of the honour after being convicted of promoting hatred against Jews.
That conviction was overturned on appeal in 2006, and a new trial was ordered. He was acquitted of those charges on his second trial last year.