Robert Dziekanski

16/11/07, Mark Hume, Video stirs troubling questions on tasers, Source.
16/11/07, Globe Editorial, The taser death of Robert Dziekanski, Source.
15/11/07, Adam Radwanski - So, what else is on?, Source.
15/11/07, Cynthia Yoo & Rafal Gerszak, Transcript of Dziekanski's final encounter, Source.
16/11/07, Rod Mickleburgh, The tragic amateur video tells the whole story - or does it?, Source.
15/11/07, Vídeo mostra imigrante sendo morto por choque no Canadá, Source.
17/11/07, Jurek Baltakis, Eulogy, Source.
17/11/07, RCMP falsehoods on Dziekanski's death, Source.
17/11/07, Rod Mickleburgh, There was one person who tried to help, Source.
19/11/07, Patrick Brethour, B.C. Mounties face growing public outrage, Source.
17/11/07 & 19/11/07, RCMP Commissioner's Statement - Incident at Vancouver Airport, Source.
20/11/07, Patrick Brethour & Justine Hunter & Marjan Farahbaksh, 'Vacuum' sparks B.C. taser inquiry, Source.
Watchdog rejects spin charge against RCMP, Jonathan Woodward, 19/11/07, Source.


16/11/07, Mark Hume, Video stirs troubling questions on tasers, (Back).

Analyzing a fatal confrontation with man who seemed a threat to no one.

VANCOUVER — When four RCMP officers strode into the arrivals area at Vancouver International Airport to deal with a disruptive traveller, they came armed with a variety of weapons and were guided by the National Use-of-Force Framework used to train police across the country.

Within minutes, however, the guidelines meant to help police maintain order with minimum risk to themselves and the public had not prevented Robert Dziekanski, a 40-year-old Polish immigrant, from ending up on the floor in the throes of death.

A disturbing video of that incident, shot by Paul Pritchard of Victoria, has become international news since it was released Wednesday, and it is raising troubling questions about a police decision to use force against a man who seemed to be threatening no one.

A taser was used to shock Mr. Dziekanski about 24 seconds after the police arrived, although he appeared to offer no resistance to the officers, raising his hands and backing away a few steps.

"It's pretty disturbing," Neil Boyd, a professor of criminology at Simon Fraser University, said of the video that gives the public a stark look at an RCMP takedown that went wrong.

Prof. Boyd, who has studied the use of tasers by police, says he has never seen anything like it in his career. And he doubts police will be able to justify what they did.

"Unless there's some remarkable explanation, it would seem to be a use of force that was inappropriate to the circumstances," said Mr. Boyd, who believes that tasers are a reasonable option in many scenarios.

"I think we could all imagine circumstances in which the police officer is not directly threatened and yet the use of a taser may be appropriate. I think that that would be a fairly small number of circumstances, however."

He said that faced with a hardened criminal, for example, police might well be justified in using a taser even if the suspect wasn't threatening officers, but was simply backing away from them.

"I'm trained to think that there's always another side and perhaps we haven't heard the other side. So I do want to issue that caveat. It's going to be important to hear from the police.

"But on the face of it, it's difficult to see why that particular approach was taken, as opposed to a range of other approaches that would have required much less force, given the number of police officers involved and what the person was actually doing, or at least appeared to be doing," he said.

Prof. Boyd said there should be a national inquiry into the use of tasers by police that should examine not only the lethality of the weapon itself, but also the procedures that guide officers in using force.

Currently, police departments across Canada, including the RCMP, rely on the National Use-of-Force Framework as a guide to training officers in how to respond to potentially dangerous situations.

The framework calls on police to assess a situation quickly, and then use an escalating series of responses, depending on the actions of the subject with whom they are dealing.

According to a paper by the Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police, passive resistance can trigger a soft physical response, which might involve an officer placing a hand on someone's shoulder, or putting them in handcuffs. A subject who offers active resistance, by backing away, running or hiding, can be met with hard physical control, which could involve joint locks, punches or strikes with open hands.

It is only when a subject becomes "assaultive," however, that the framework calls for the use of intermediate weapons, such as the taser or pepper spray.

Mr. Dziekanski backs away from police a few steps after raising his hands and dropping them. He is then zapped with a taser, and police pin his writhing body to the floor. Minutes later he is dead.

*****

Use of force

In 1999, representatives from police departments across Canada gathered at the Ontario Police College for a three-day conference to develop a national model to help train officers in the use of force.

The result was that Canada became the first country in the world to forge a National Use-of-Force Framework. Since then, it has been used to guide police officers in responding to potentially dangerous situations, such as the one RCMP faced at Vancouver International Airport when calls came in about a traveller throwing furniture in the arrivals area.

In training manuals, the National Use-of-Force Framework is illustrated graphically as a series of interlocking circles meant to depict the wide array of situations police officers might face, and guide them in choosing the appropriate responses.

Circles were chosen because police wanted to get away from a linear progression of options, which would have restricted officers.

Guidelines

This chart has been adopted as the National Use-of-Force Framework for training police officers across Canada on how to assess situations and decide what level of force to use.

There are three circles. The inner one represents the person police are facing. Police are supposed to observe the situation, then assess, plan and act. The next circle represents the subject's behaviour. And the outer circle is the appropriate officer response.

Reading this, you would see that if the officer's presence is enough to make the subject compliant, then the situation is dealt with.

If the subject shows passive resistance, the officer can use tactical communications - ordering him to do something - or empty-hand techniques, such as placing a hand on his shoulder. If the subject shows active resistance, soft- impact weapons can be used, and if he is combative, they can use hard-impact weapons - which would include the taser.


16/11/07, Globe Editorial, The taser death of Robert Dziekanski, (Back).

The taser death video that was being broadcast around the world yesterday is a source of shame and disgrace for Canada and for its national police force.

The RCMP can seek to justify police actions all they like. They can argue that the four officers who tasered a Polish man at Vancouver International Airport on Oct. 14 were just following procedures.

They can argue that we don't know for sure his cause of death, and that tasers are safe. They can argue that the video is only one piece of evidence and that people should wait for the results of an inquest before forming their judgments. They can say all of that, but the killing of Robert Dziekanski will be seen only one way: as the summary execution of an innocent man for the crime of being disoriented, for not understanding, for being a stranger.

The video, which was shot by Victoria resident Paul Pritchard, is almost impossible to watch for its tragic inevitability. It's like watching a snuff film. But apart from police, there is some humanity in it. A woman in the video responds in a way the situation called for. She seems to understand that this is a person in distress. She approaches Mr. Dziekanski gently, opening a hand to him. She attempts to communicate with him. A man's voice is also heard on the video trying to calm Mr. Dziekanski, saying, "There's nothing wrong ... It's okay." These two citizens were responding as human beings, offering help to someone in need.

At one point, Mr. Dziekanski seems to be organizing chairs to keep an automatic door from closing. At another, he throws something. He's upset. No wonder.

Think about what he had been through that day. He had flown for the first time in his life. He first travelled five hours by bus in Poland and another 10 by plane to reach Vancouver. He arrived in a strange country where no one spoke his language and waited for several hours to meet his mother. She was outside the baggage area, which is secure. He did not realize this, and waited in the secure area for her. He could not make himself understood. After hours of waiting he was clearly frustrated, agitated. Who wouldn't be?

Then the police arrived. Here were four members of ostensibly one of the finest police forces in the world, and what did they do? This is where the video is so critical. Everyone can now see they had a whole range of options.

Did they pause for even a moment to assess the situation? Did they question the civilian witnesses who had been trying to calm and provide aid to the man only moments earlier? Did they gesture for him to calm down? Or sit down? No, they already knew what they were going to do.

This man was not armed. He was in the arrivals lounge of an international airport. There is no place on Earth where police would be less likely to encounter an armed man. Nor, as an autopsy showed, was he drugged or drunk. Nor was he violent; he did not resist police or confront them. He was a man in distress, a man who needed help.

But help was not on offer. The ordinary people who were present left matters to the experts. But these experts, four police officers who were armed with guns and a taser, who were wearing body armour, who were wearing the proud uniform of the Mounties, confronted the lone, upset, lost Polish visitor and immediately tasered him with a 50,000-volt shock.

Mr. Dziekanski collapsed screaming and writhing to the floor. He was not resisting arrest. He was in agony. What did Canada's finest do next? At one point someone yells, "Hit him again." Mr. Dziekanski was tasered at least once more. The four officers piled on the man. One placed his knee on Mr. Dziekanski's neck. Soon the writhing stopped. He was unresponsive. He may already have been dead.

Public Safety Minister Stockwell Day yesterday ordered a review of the use of tasers as a result of this outrageous and tragic incident.

He is correct to do so. All that is wrong with tasers is in plain view in this video. The officers didn't attempt any interaction with the man. They didn't try to negotiate. They didn't make calming gestures. They didn't have to. They had their tasers with them, and lost their humanity.

Tasers were never intended to be an alternative to those values the RCMP cite in their published "commitment to communities," values such as "compassion" and "respect." They were meant to be an alternative to the use of firearms, and live ammunition would never have been justified — indeed, would never have been used — in this situation. To have done so would have been viewed as an extrajudicial killing. How is the use of a taser in this case really any different?


15/11/07, Adam Radwanski - So, what else is on?, (Back).

By his own admission, Stephane Dion hasn't yet bothered to watch the ghastly footage of Robert Dziekanski's fatal tasering. As for Gordon Campbell, he's seen "part" of it, but hasn't "had a chance to see the whole tape."

Forgive me for asking an obvious question, but, um, why the hell not? The world is watching footage of an unarmed foreigner who posed little threat being brutally, fatally taken down by Canadian police - and neither the leader of the federal opposition nor the premier of the province in which it happened is taking the time to watch the video himself?

I know that scandals from the early '90s are more interesting, but when something is being described (not entirely unreasonably) as Canada's version of Rodney King, you'd think it might warrant full attention.


15/11/07, Cynthia Yoo & Rafal Gerszak, Transcript of Dziekanski's final encounter, (Back).

Vancouver — Voice off camera: Computer's on?

Voice off camera: What language do you speak?

Muffled responses, comments off camera.

Voice off camera: Just look at his face!

Voice off camera: There's 300 people coming in...coming in.

Muffled comments off camera.

Voice off camera: He did it. He almost threw the chair through the window to get out. Look at it. Look...

Muffled voices talk excitedly off camera.

Mr. Dziekanski paces the whole length of the secure arrivals area, walking back to the entrance doors.

Dziekanski: Breathing deeply. I'm going to break this desk. Is this going to continue?

Muffled voices off camera.

Voice off camera: Is there anybody at the door?

Voice off camera: I can't believe he's ... out!

Voice off camera: Nobody's here...from security.

Muffled voices off camera.

Voice off camera: Just five minutes before ...comes down with 300 people on it...

Dziekanski: Holding and waving a small wooden fold-up stool at the entrance door, speaking in Polish. I'm going to break windows. I'm going to break this window here.

Voice off camera: ...something's wrong with him.

Voice off camera: ... is Russian. He speaks Russian.

Voice off camera: Is that what he's speaking? I don't even know what he's speaking.

Voice off camera: What language do you speak?

Voice off camera: He doesn't speak English...

Voice off camera: Russian? Russian?

Muffled voices off camera.

Voice off camera: Ruskian? Nope.

Dziekanski: Mr. Dziekanski holds and waves a small wooden fold-up stool in the entrance doors. I will not allow them.

Voice off camera: There's nothing wrong! There's nothing wrong...it's okay.

Voice off camera: We need a Russian interpreter. We need someone to open the arrivals area...

Dziekanski: Still holding the stool in the entrance doors, I'm going to report on you and the rest of them.

Voice off camera: Calm down.

Dziekanski: Fine, fine. Takes a breath. We'll see.

Woman walks over to Mr. Dziekanski, motioning to him, holding out her hand.

Woman: Calm down. She motions to him, holding out her hand in order to communicate with him.

Dziekanski: Still holding stool, pacing in the entrance doors,. Get away. Get away.

Muffled voices off camera.

Dziekanski: Swears.

Muffled voices off camera.

Woman : Motioning to Mr. Dziekanski. Calm down please.

Woman tries to communicate through the clear glass partition, with Mr. Dzienkanski who has gone into the arrivals area.

Dziekanski: (Inaudible)

Woman: ....Excuse me...I know I know...

Mr. Dziekanski and the woman speak through the partition, nodding and motioning.

Woman walks back away from partition.

Muffled voices off camera.

Voice off camera: Look! He's got a computer...

Mr. Dziekanski throws some laptop or computer on to the glass partition.

Voice off camera: Whoa.

Voice off camera: Right in front of the cops too.

Voice off camera: Jesus Christ.

Mr. Dziekanski holds up an electric equipment and attempts to throw it.

Voices off camera: No no no.

Mr. Dziekanski puts down the equipment rather than throwing it.

Two airport security officer come to the entrance doors and Mr. Dziekanski comes to the doors to meet them.

Voice off camera: He speaks Russian and nobody can help him...You need a Russian interpreter here to calm him down. Cathay's coming down in five minutes.

Voice off camera: ...Russian interpreter.

Voice off camera: ...Can you call Customs and tell them to stop it....

Voice off camera: He is so scared...just leave him.

Voice off camera: Why are the police not here? We called security, we called the police.

Voice off camera: Calm down, calm down please.

Camera turns to police.

Dziekanski: Mr. Dziekanski screams. Police! Police!

Police speaks to him and points. They motion him to inside and they point to a spot on the ground and they encircle him.

Dziekanski: What are you doing? An RCMP officer points at him. There's nothing here .

An RCMP officer shoots him with a Taser.

RCMP officer: Get down, get down!

Dziekanski: (Screams as he falls to the ground)

Police fire two more Taser blasts.

RCMP officer: Get a Taser.

RCMP officer: Put your hands up.

RCMP officer: Get him down, get him down!

Dziekanski continues to struggle, scream

Security guard: Operations…(unintelligible)

Dziekanski: Oh, no! It's pinching.

Four RCMP officers pin Mr. Dziekanski as they restrain him.

Dziekanski: Bandit!

Pritchard: Jesus.

RCMP officer: Get his knees, right…

Pritchard: How is he still fighting them off?

Off-camera: Noboby knows why. He speaks Russian. Nobody knows why. No rhyme or reason.

Pritchard: Prime footage for my home videos.

Pritchard: He's unconscious…I heard him say Code Red.

Pritchard: I've only got three minutes of footage, three minutes of memory, three minutes of memory left.


16/11/07, Rod Mickleburgh, The tragic amateur video tells the whole story - or does it?, (Back).

VANCOUVER — Is a video the whole truth and nothing but the truth?

In the case of Rodney King, a jury decided that it was not, and four members of the L.A. Police Department were acquitted of beating Mr. King, despite vivid amateur video footage showing police raining blow after blow on the helpless black man.

Now, we have the taser shot heard round the world.

Wherever the truly disturbing video of Robert Dziekanski's final, writhing moments has been seen, outrage over the swift decision by the RCMP to taser the agitated Pole has been swift and graphic.

Paul Pritchard's recording of the tragic incident that led to Mr. Dziekanski's death last month at Vancouver International Airport shows the whole, sad story. Or does it?

In a CBC radio interview yesterday, Mr. Pritchard confessed he had two completely different reactions to what happened. On video, much of the episode seems to unfold in an eerie calm. Yet, at the time, as an eyewitness, Mr. Pritchard felt the situation was anything but serene.

"In fact, the original interviews and my statements were the complete opposite," he recounted. "Our opinions of him [Mr. Dziekanski] were: Here's a man, he's distraught, he's throwing things and he's yelling in a foreign language.

"Believe me, I was 100 per cent on the police side up to this point. As far as I was concerned, the cops came in and they did their job. ... I remember the cops running in there, and I thought there was this aggressive behaviour."

Then, reminiscent of the coach who doesn't want to comment on the game until he's seen the film, Mr. Pritchard saw what his video camera had recorded. It totally changed his view.

"Not until I got the footage back and I took some time to go through it again [did I realize that the atmosphere] was so calm. Bone-chilling calm. ... I can see it live in front of me. There was no need to use the taser. They had time. ... It was a complete misuse of the taser. It didn't need to be done."

Does what he feels now override what Mr. Pritchard experienced while the incident was taking place, before he took a look at the now-famous video? Do videos trump eyewitness accounts? What is one to believe?

Despite their clarity, videos do not record tension, emotions or accumulated anxiety. Nor do they provide context or background.

That is exactly what the RCMP will be focusing on as they try to justify to millions of appalled viewers why four of their officers decided in a matter of seconds that the only way to corral Mr. Dziekanski was to taser him, pin him roughly to the ground, and taser him again.

The Mounties have already downgraded the video from "evidence vital to the investigation" - their description when they initially refused Mr. Pritchard's demand to return it - to "only one piece of evidence," now that the footage is in the public domain.

When a coroner's inquest is eventually called many months from now, police experts will have had time to examine the video in minute detail with their own particular spin.

It's a safe bet that their view of the same piece of video that has led to the RCMP's current vilification will clash with the public's perception. Not everyone agrees that the camera never lies.

The only certainty is that Mr. Dziekanski should not be dead. His fatal tasering was merely the final piece of a tragic series of events, in which everything that could go wrong, did.

From his confused airport wanderings without anyone seeming to take notice, to the role of Canadian immigration processors who kept him for hours, to the failure of airport officials to connect his frantic, waiting mother with her distraught son, to the lack of an interpreter, to the hapless efforts of airport security to defuse the situation, it was all a nightmare.

If even one of these failures had not occurred, Mr. Dziekanski would be alive today. He would be relishing his fresh start in Canada with his mother, Zofia Cisowski, who had sacrificed everything to bring him here.

Instead, Ms. Cisowski is left to tearfully sift through her son's luggage for mementoes of what was to be their happy life together in Canada. And Mr. Dziekanski's last view of Canada was an airport floor.


15/11/07, Vídeo mostra imigrante sendo morto por choque no Canadá, (Back).

BBC Brasil - Polonês morre depois de incidente com policiais em aeroporto

Autoridades no Canadá divulgaram um vídeo que mostra os últimos momentos de um imigrante que morreu em um aeroporto depois de ser atingido por um taser, uma arma que dispara choques elétricos, operada por policias. O polonês Robert Dziekanski, de 40 anos, tinha acabado de chegar ao aeroporto internacional de Vancouver, vindo de sua terra natal na tentativa de emigrar para o Canadá, quando se envolveu em um incidente com policiais.

A rede de TV canadense CBC, principal canal de televisão do país, divulgou o vídeo do incidente, filmado por um passageiro que se encontrava nas proximidades. O incidente está sendo investigado pela polícia, representantes do aeroporto e por um legista.

O vídeo mostra Dziekanski, agitado, no setor de alfândega, antes do aparecimento da polícia. Ele aparece respirando e suando em profusão, andando de um lado para o outro e atraindo a atenção das autoridades alfandegárias. Pouco depois ele joga objetos ao chão e lança uma mesa dobrável sobre um janela de vidro. As imagens mostram a aproximação dos policiais e o momento em que os oficiais usam a arma de choques elétricos contra o imigrante.

As imagens mostram ainda Dziekanski caindo no chão, aos gritos e sofrendo convulsões. Os policiais então disparam a arma novamente, imobilizando a vítima. Momentos depois, uma voz grita "código vermelho", alertando para uma emergência médica. Ele foi pronunciado morto no local pelas equipes de emergência. A autópsia não encontrou sinais de drogas ou álcool no corpo da vítima.

Segundo a CBC, Robert Dziekanski chegou ao Canadá por volta das 4 horas da tarde (horário local). Ainda não se sabe porquê o imigrante saiu da alfândega apenas depois da meia-noite. O polonês vinha da Europa para morar no Canadá com a mãe, residente na província de British Columbia. Um porta-voz da polícia canadense, Dale Carr, disse que "o vídeo é apenas uma das provas do caso e o público deve esperar pelos resultados da investigação".

O caso causou grande discussão no Canadá sobre o uso de tasers. As armas emitem descargas de Ondas T, que paralisam o atingido, interrompendo a comunicação do cérebro com o corpo. Apesar de consideradas não-letais, a arma já causou pelo menos 18 mortes no Canadá desde 2003, segundo a CBC. Segundo um relatório da Anistia Internacional de 2004, mais de 70 pessoas já foram mortas nos Estados Unidos adepois de tingidas por um taser.


17/11/07, Jurek Baltakis, Eulogy, (Back).

'People become good by doing good,' Dziekanski believed.

Jurek Baltakis is one of the leaders of the Kamloops Polish community. He has known Zofia Cisowski, the mother of Robert Dziekanski, since shortly after she arrived in the British Columbia interior. Today at 11 a.m. he will deliver this eulogy at a public memorial service held at the Kamloops Funeral Home.

In Kamloops we have very small Polish community, so we are all very close and know each other well. Last four weeks brought us closer than ever before.

Unfortunately we did not have a chance to meet and welcome a new member of our community. As a new Canadian immigrant, Robert made only as far as Vancouver airport, possibly going to the history books as a shortest live Canadian immigrant ever.

Robert was born 40 years ago in Bielawa, midsize town, southwest of Poland. As a young boy, he moved with his mother to much larger town, Gliwice, where Zofia could find better job to support him. Life for single mom was not that ease in Poland at that time.

In Gliwice, he graduated the technical high school as the miner. This was a very popular occupation in Gliwice, which is famous for pit coal mining sector. After upgrading his trade he enjoy working on construction before immigrating to Canada.

Like I said before, I did not have a chance to meet Robert, but in last four weeks I learn a few amazing stories about his life.

Just imagine yourself, you are leaving Canada and going to some unknown country 9,000 km away. You have only three small suitcases. What would you take with you? Tough decision, is it not?

Not for Robert. He stuffed one suitcase with some clothes and gifts for relatives and two suitcases full of geography books, atlases and magazines like National Geographic.

As Zofia is saying, he was the geography freak. He knew the names of major rivers, lakes and capitals on every continent on the Earth. And you know what? He was buried with two front pages of National Geographic. One of them was showing Poland, and the other beautiful B.C. Two weeks ago when Zofia said her final goodbye to Robert, she brought these two pages so he can make his last trip to eternity and remember that he was a Polish-Canadian.

One more thing which comes to my mind is Robert's love to his mom.

He always remembered about Zofia's birthday, names day (European tradition) and nice postcards from every trip he went on. Not only his handwriting was one of a kind, as you will see on the slide show, but the content was very nice and thoughtful. Just take look on the last page of the memorial card.

This is from the postcard Robert sent to his mom, Zofia:

"Ludzie staja sie dobrzy poprzez praktykowanie dobroci, rzadko sie zdarza czlowiek dobry z natury. Dobroc istnieje wcale nie po to by z niej korzystac. Dobroc nie moze wyplywac ze slabosci tylko z potegi." Gliwice, 26/07/2006 Translation of Robert's notes to his mom:

"People become good by doing good; it is rare that a person is good by nature alone.

Goodness does not exist so one can make use of it. Goodness does not flow from a place of weakness but one of power."

Just from the quotations he wrote to Zofia, I can say that Robert would be a great Canadian citizen and we would be all very proud of him.

Now I would like to make the small experiment here: " Wszyscy ktorzy mowia po Polsku prosze podniesc prawa reke do gory." [Put your right hand up.]

I can see that most of you are confused and cannot follow simple instruction. Looks like you do not understand Polish.

This is how Robert felt for over nine hours at the airport. Lost, confused, thirsty and hungry and ignored by all.

I made the same trip over 20 years ago. Two small children, Maria and me. We arrived at Vancouver airport tired and our hearts pounding. We were so uncertain and afraid. Fortunately people from immigrants services welcome us and help us at the Vancouver and Kamloops airport. They were like guardian angels for us.

Robert was not so fortunate. The airport services have failed him and Zofia. There were no guardian angels or any other helpful human beings working there to prevent this tragedy. Our everyday Canadian kindness was missing there.

In closing, let Robert's spirit live on in each of you. Love your mother, father, family and friends as Robert loved Zofia and his family. Let your love reach out to Zofia and the rest of Robert's family.

In Robert's words, "It is rare that a person is good by nature alone. People become good by doing good."

Today when you leave here, do something good. And tomorrow, when you get out of bed, make it your first choice to do something good. And every day after that, do good things.

People become good by doing good, Robert said. You become good by doing good. Be good people.


17/11/07, RCMP falsehoods on Dziekanski's death, (Back).

Canadians cannot believe a word the RCMP have to say over the taser death of Robert Dziekanski. The cruelty of the response by four Mounties to the Polish man's plight is a shocking example of police inhumanity. The disinformation campaign waged later can only further harm the reputation and credibility of the force. How, when an RCMP spokesman stands up in the future and calmly gives a version of events involving a member, can he be trusted?

What is clear is that in the aftermath of the Oct. 14 tasering at Vancouver International Airport, RCMP spokesman Sgt. Pierre Lemaitre provided a version of events to the public that contrasts sharply with what was captured on the now world-famous taser death video.

Witnesses said Mr. Dziekanski wasn't a threat to anybody, but Sgt. Lemaitre told CBC Television that police arrived and, despite efforts to calm him, were met aggressively and confrontationally by Mr. Dziekanski. “The officers were using gestures saying, you know, relax, relax, put your hands on the desk there where the computer was taken; to no avail, [he was] still throwing things around,” said Sgt. Lemaitre.

He gave a similar account to the Vancouver Sun: “The officers tried to speak to him, tried to calm him down, but he continued to throw things around and yell and scream.” The police spokesman also told a CTV reporter that “he was pounding on the windows behind us, he was throwing chairs.”

The video shows Mr. Dziekanski rearranging furniture, and throwing something earlier on, but not as the four officers approached him. Instead, he raised his hands and moved away a few steps. He gave the appearance not of posing a threat but of exhibiting resignation. There is no evidence on the video of any attempt to negotiate with the man, or to calm him in the few seconds before he was hit with 50,000 volts.

The first taser blow left him immediately convulsed and screaming on the floor. Sgt. Lemaitre's claim that the taser “didn't seem to have any kind of effect on him” is laughable. The officer also said that “even after the handcuffs, he continued to fight.” That is the RCMP's stated justification for tasering Mr. Dziekanski again, and putting pressure on what Sgt. Lemaitre claimed was his “shoulders.” The video shows Mr. Dziekanski writhing, not fighting, before he was hit again with the taser, and reveals that pressure was placed not on his shoulders but on his neck, with a knee.

Without the video, shot by Paul Pritchard, it would have been the word of four Mounties against those of a few civilian witnesses. Now, the entire world knows how the RCMP callously misread and brutally dispatched a distressed and exhausted man from Poland.

A charitable interpretation of the statements made by Sgt. Lemaitre would be that he did not have all the information, or was himself duped by officers involved in Mr. Dziekanski's killing. Then again, it may be that Sgt. Lemaitre was complicit in an attempt to whitewash the affair. Only the RCMP know the truth. Don't expect a straight answer.


17/11/07, Rod Mickleburgh, There was one person who tried to help, (Back).

The entire planet is now weighing in on the needless death of Robert Dziekanski.

That's thanks to the laudable decision by Paul Pritchard to challenge the RCMP's refusal to return his raw, gripping video of the fatal airport tasering and then release it to the public.

The result has been an unprecedented, international black eye for a country that likes to think of itself as a kinder, gentler place than you-know-who south of the border.

Yet, as Mr. Rogers (yes, that Mr. Rogers) was fond of reminding his young charges, there is always some good to be found in the blackest of situations.

At the airport, that good came in the person of Sima Ashrafinia.

She was right there when Mr. Dziekanski began his erratic behaviour. Rather than cower or call for police, Ms. Ashrafinia reached out to him with compassion.

Even when he threw a small chair against the thick glass that separated them, she did not back away.

Instead, using hand gestures learned from communicating with deaf members of her family, Ms. Ashrafinia tried to calm the confused, frightened visitor. It seemed to work.

At least until the police arrived.

When she watched the chilling video footage of Mr. Dziekanski's fate despite her best efforts to help him, tears rolled down her cheek.

Her actions are a reminder that not everyone at the airport treated Mr. Dziekanski as a problem or a nuisance. Sima Ashrafinia treated him as a human being.

Lest we forget

During his sad, desperate quest to join his mother for a new life in Canada, Mr. Dziekanski suffered one tragic indignity after another. Time after time, the system failed him.

I look forward to someone having the grace to establish a permanent memorial at the airport to ensure that the death of this lost, innocent traveller is never forgotten.


19/11/07, Patrick Brethour, B.C. Mounties face growing public outrage, (Back).

Residents acting 'very aggressively' toward national police force in wake of airport taser death.

VANCOUVER — A wave of public anger about the death of Robert Dziekanski is washing over the RCMP in the Lower Mainland, with upset Canadians berating officers at the airport and at the nearby Richmond detachment – and even throwing eggs at one police cruiser.

Deputy Commissioner Gary Bass, commanding officer for the RCMP in British Columbia, told The Globe and Mail that members of the public have been acting “very aggressively” toward officers since Mr. Dziekanski's death a month ago.

The 40-year-old Polish man died within minutes of being tasered repeatedly at Vancouver International Airport, where he had spent hours wandering in a vain search from his mother. Four officers, responding to a report of a man with erratic behaviour destroying property, entered the international arrivals area in the early morning of Oct. 14, and tasered Mr. Dziekanski less than 30 seconds later.

A bystander captured the episode on digital video, with the disturbing 10 minutes of footage showing Mr. Dziekanski screaming and writhing before being pinned down and handcuffed, and then lapsing into unconsciousness. The public release of that video last week has sparked controversy around the world, particularly in Poland, whose ambassador called the RCMP's actions “unsuitable under the circumstances, even excessive.”

Deputy Commissioner Bass disclosed Sunday that the four officers involved in the incident – one a relatively senior corporal, the other three with one to three years' experience – were reassigned to office duties two days after the Oct. 14 incident, in part to guarantee their personal safety. “They're doing work that doesn't require them to be in front-line duties,” he said.

Such a move is not standard practice, he said, but was judged to be a prudent step. “In this case, obviously, the amount of public reaction to the incident is of concern to us, including the fact that there have been a lot of very negative reaction to the members – all the members – at Richmond, very confrontational. So, it's essentially for two reasons. It's for the officers' own safety, as well as, you know, to address the concerns that are being voiced.”

RCMP Commissioner William Elliott, in a statement issued Saturday, offered the force's condolences on the day a memorial service was held for Mr. Dziekanski in Kamloops, where his mother lives. Commissioner Elliott went on to write that he had been avoiding comment during an active investigation. “I recognize, however, that the RCMP cannot provide effective policing services without the support of the communities we serve and I am concerned that growing misperceptions are eroding the public's confidence in the RCMP.”

There have not been any physical confrontations between members of the public and RCMP officers, said Deputy Commissioner Bass, but many Canadians have been repeating critical comments from media reports including a Globe editorial last Friday that said Mr. Dziekanski's death amounted to a “summary execution.”

Staff Sergeant Ken Legge, of the RCMP's staff relations representative program, said he had not heard of any such incidents elsewhere in the country, adding that the reassignment of officers involved in a death-in-custody is “not abnormal.”

Deputy Commissioner Bass issued a separate statement on Saturday offering his condolences to the Dziekanski family, on behalf of the B.C. division. He also said in the statement that the Ontario Provincial Police have been asked to provide an “external and independent view” of the investigation by the Integrated Homicide Investigation Team (IHIT).

There have also been internal discussions about whether to continue using tasers, Deputy Commissioner Bass said. “We've talked long and hard about that,” he said, adding that the short-term choice came down to a complete ban or a continuation of current policy because any intermediate step would require extensive training.

The IHIT investigation is one of several inquiries launched in the wake of Mr. Dziekanski's death, with the B.C. coroner and the chairman of the Commission for Public Complaints Against the RCMP each conducting examinations of the matter. The federal Public Security department also has a review under way, the Canadian Police Centre will launch a new study of taser technology and procedures, and British Columbia has asked the B.C. Association of Chiefs of Police to examine the appropriate use of tasers.

But Murray Mollard, executive director of the B.C. Civil Liberties Association, said none of these reviews are by an independent body with the power to assign blame.


17/11/07 & 19/11/07, RCMP Commissioner's Statement - Incident at Vancouver Airport, (Back).

The death of Mr. Robert Dziekanski on October 14, 2007, was tragic. The RCMP wishes to once again extend our deepest sympathy and condolences to his family.

Although a number of representatives of the RCMP have made themselves available to the media, there is a perception that the RCMP has been silent since the airing of the disturbing video images earlier this week.

I have not made a public statement before now as I felt that the best course of action was to let the investigations underway proceed so that we could all benefit from an independent determination of the facts.

I recognize, however, that the RCMP cannot provide effective policing services without the support of the communities we serve and I am concerned that growing misperceptions are eroding the public's confidence in the RCMP.

I would like to make clear that this incident is being treated very seriously by the RCMP, up to and including by me as Commissioner.

Many questions are being asked about what happened on October 14 at the Vancouver International Airport and there are a number of independent processes underway to examine, in detail, exactly what occurred.

Immediately after Mr. Dziekanski's death, an investigation was initiated by the Integrated Homicide Investigation Team in British Columbia. This team includes experienced investigators from the RCMP as well as members of the New Westminster, Port Moody, Abbotsford and West Vancouver police services.

The scope of this investigation includes everything that happened from the moment Mr. Dziekanski boarded his plane in Poland to come Canada.

Investigative teams will be interviewing witnesses as well as individuals from a number of domestic and international authorities.

An independent observer from the Commission for Public Complaints Against the RCMP (CPC) has been involved from the outset and is being provided complete access throughout the investigation.

The CPC has also announced its own independent investigation. Information about the CPC investigation is available at www.cpc-cpp.gc.ca .

In addition, the B.C. Coroner's office will be conducting an inquest.

The RCMP fully supports these investigations and is anxious to learn as much as possible about this tragic event.

For the time being, the four RCMP officers directly involved in the events of October 14th , 2007, have been assigned to other duties. The RCMP has also undertaken an examination of our policies and procedure relating to conducted energy weapons, commonly called "TASERs" and will be providing a report to the Minister of Public Safety. We will further consider our policies and procedures in light of the findings and recommendations flowing from the investigations currently under way.

Based on the information available to date, the RCMP remains of the view that "TASERs" are effective law enforcement tools and are safe in the vast majority of cases. When properly deployed they result in overall injury reduction when dealing with the arrest of violent individuals.

Many comments we have received seem to suggest that the use of a TASER is never justified based on the likelihood of inflicting serious injury or death. In fact, our experience and that of other police services over the course of many years and thousands of incidents, as well as existing research, have shown that deploying a TASER is often the fastest and safest way to gain control of an individual. We and other police services teach our officers that it is less likely to cause serious injury than other tactics.

We believe that further research, particularily with respect to Conducted Energy Weapons and excited delirium, is needed and we welcome yesterday's announcement that the Canadian Police Research Centre has been asked by the Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police to conduct further work in this area.

The RCMP recognizes the video images recently made public are disturbing for anyone who sees them. We do not, however, believe that it is appropriate to draw conclusions based on these images alone. This serious event deserves a comprehensive and complete examination and we are confident that the processes underway will provide the proper basis on which to make conclusions and to determine appropriate action.

William J. S. Elliott, Commissioner


20/11/07, Patrick Brethour & Justine Hunter & Marjan Farahbaksh, 'Vacuum' sparks B.C. taser inquiry, (Back).

Attorney-General launches full-scale probe into airport incident: Premier extends apology to Polish man's grieving mother.

VANCOUVER and VICTORIA — British Columbia is launching a full-scale inquiry into the death of Robert Dziekanski at the hands of the RCMP, saying the authorities have failed to tell the public how a 40-year-old Polish man emigrating to live with his mother instead ended up dead on the floor of Vancouver's airport.

Attorney-General Wally Oppal said the government was forced to call a public inquiry after it became clear various authorities - including Vancouver airport, the RCMP and Canada Border Services Agency - were not providing useful answers about what went wrong.

"There was a huge vacuum of information there," Mr. Oppal said. "We all viewed that horrible video, and the circumstances, and I think it's safe to say we were waiting for some kind of appropriate answer from the authorities and nothing was forthcoming at all. ... The public deserves answers."

Mr. Dziekanski died within minutes of being tasered repeatedly at Vancouver International Airport a month ago, where he had spent hours wandering in a vain search for his mother, Zofia Cisowski.

They never found each other. Four officers, responding to a report of a man with erratic behaviour destroying property, entered the arrivals area on the morning of Oct. 14, and tasered Mr. Dziekanski less than 30 seconds later. A digital video of the encounter flashed around the world last week, with the disturbing 10 minutes of footage showing Mr. Dziekanski screaming and writhing before being pinned down and handcuffed, and then lapsing into unconsciousness.

Premier Gordon Campbell did not directly criticize the RCMP or others yesterday, but offered Mr. Dziekanski's grieving mother a public apology. "I'm glad to apologize for what took place," the Premier said, promising to phone Ms. Cisowski by tomorrow.

"This is a human tragedy. My heart goes out to his mother, to his family, to his friends," Mr. Campbell said.

"It's not something anyone in British Columbia, frankly, ever would have anticipated happening."

The province has yet to define the terms of the inquiry, but in a statement released yesterday, said that the review will be examining taser use immediately.

The inquiry will also examine the circumstances of Mr. Dziekanski's death and how Vancouver airport deals with foreign passengers, although those portions may be delayed in deference to the continuing homicide investigation.

The RCMP declined to comment on Mr. Oppal's criticism, but Staff Sergeant John Ward said the force - including the four officers involved in the incident - would co-operate fully with the inquiry. The CBSA could not be reached for immediate comment. In a prepared statement, the Vancouver airport said it would also co-operate fully.

Paul Levy, the airport's operations vice-president, said the airport authority has been sharing all the information it has with the public.

The tape of Mr. Dziekanski's death has created a furor both in Poland and Canada, with the RCMP reporting over the weekend that several of its officers in the Lower Mainland have been accosted by members of the public, including one incident in which a police cruiser was pelted with eggs. Mr. Campbell said he understands public frustration, but urged British Columbians to remember that the police put themselves in harm's way every day. "It's a very difficult job."

Solicitor-General John Les, who last week refused to launch any additional inquiries, said yesterday the public inquiry is the best way to answer the public's questions, but initially stopped short of offering an apology, saying he wanted to find out more details first.

After the Premier apologized, Mr. Les offered his own condolences.

NDP public safety critic Mike Farnworth said Mr. Les's slowness to apologize is more evidence that the Solicitor-General should resign, after fumbling the issues of gang violence and Mr. Dziekanski's death. Mr. Campbell rejected that call, and criticized the opposition for injecting politics into the debate over the Polish man's death.

Mr. Les, along with Mr. Campbell, continued to reject calls for a moratorium on taser use.

Recent public inquiries in B.C.

1993: An inquiry probing the B.C. government's purchase of MacMillan Bloedel shares and its decision to allow the company to log trees in Clayoquot Sound found no conflict of interest.

1993: The Vancouver police chief resigned after an inquiry found that, as the most senior officer on duty, he failed to adequately report the police jail beating of Richard Alfred Mountain.

1994: An inquiry into the case of the convicted killer Danny Perrault, who escaped from jail and committed a brutal rape, found that B.C. corrections officials placed more emphasis on Mr. Perrault's welfare than on public safety when they transferred him to a minimum-security jail.

1996: An inquiry into whether a charity linked to the provincial New Democratic Party improperly funnelled bingo funds into NDP coffers dragged on for five years and was finally halted in 2001 by the Liberal government.

2007: An inquiry is examining the death of Frank Joseph Paul, a drunken homeless man who was arrested by Vancouver police and later dragged from jail and dumped in an alley.

Compiled by Marjan Farahbaksh.


Watchdog rejects spin charge against RCMP, Jonathan Woodward, 19/11/07, (Back).

B.C. Civil Liberties Association says public misled by RCMP Taser report

An RCMP watchdog has dismissed a civil rights group's complaint that the Mounties "misrepresented the facts" surrounding the death of Polish immigrant Robert Dziekanski, even as the force continues to receive e-mails accusing it of "lying."

The Commission for Public Complaints against the RCMP will instead follow up an internal complaint into whether officers followed proper procedures, according to a letter from its chairman, Paul Kennedy.

"They said our complaint was moot," said B.C. Civil Liberties Association executive director Murray Mollard, whose organization filed the complaint on Tuesday.

The RCMP misled the public the day Dziekanski died, and an "astounding" video of the death tells a very different story, said Mollard.

He said that as it stands now, there is no guarantee anyone will examine whether the police "spun the story" to curry favour with the public.

RCMP spokesman Cpl. Dale Carr said officers relayed what investigators knew at the time.

"We've been outright called liars," said Carr of e-mails he'd received from the public. "But a liar is someone that has one piece of information and says something else. We were giving the information we knew at the time. That's not a lie."

On Oct. 14, Dziekanski was planning to start a new life in Canada, but became agitated after spending 10 hours in the Vancouver International Airport.

Police Tasered the 40-year-old and then wrestled him to the ground, where he died minutes later.

The morning after the incident, Sgt. Pierre Lemaitre told a Sun reporter that three police officers tried to reason with Dziekanski, but instead he "continued to throw chairs around" despite efforts to calm him.

Lemaitre also said that discharging the Taser was a "one-shot deal," and that after Dziekanski was on the ground, face-up, officers put weight only on the man's shoulders, as per police procedures.

But an explosive video of the event taken by bystander Paul Pritchard shows that there were four officers and that one of them deployed the Taser only about 25 seconds after giving brief instructions to Dziekanski, who did not speak English.

The video does not show Dziekanski resisting or throwing anything after police meet him -- instead, he appears to walk away with his hands up. Police Taser Dziekanski twice, and the officers pile on top of him, appearing to put pressure on his torso and head as he lies face-down.

Dr. John Butt, who co-authored recommendations on Taser usage for B.C.'s police complaints commissioner two years ago, said the video shows police didn't live up to their own standards.

"I don't believe they followed the recommendations," he said in an interview. "You need to have a period of assessment before you pull out the Taser. You need to keep away from people's necks and chests."

The officer's actions increased the chance of a person asphyxiating, especially when he is in an "excited" state, said Butt. But "there's nothing wrong" with using the Taser twice, he said.

Lemaitre couldn't be reached for comment Sunday.

Carr couldn't say whether what investigators told the public was drawn largely from the officers' own "duty to account" statements, which were taped hours after the incident and later transcribed. The officers must give "duty to account" statements, but have the option to stop cooperating with investigators after the fact, he said.

"They're under no obligation to talk to the investigators. But they did," he said, adding that the officers gave formal statements but that he would not release them.

The RCMP initially withheld Pritchard's video because they didn't want the officers or other witnesses to see it and change their statements, said Carr. (Police gave the video back to Pritchard after he took the matter to court.)

The four RCMP officers have been assigned to other duties, RCMP Commissioner William Elliott said in a statement Saturday. "The RCMP fully supports these investigations and is anxious to learn as much as possible about this tragic event," Elliott said.

jwoodward@png.canwest.com

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