Eleventh Hour Discovery Shocks Braidwood Inquiry

Police Planned to Taser Dziekanski, Saw no Evidence of Excited Delirium

By Garth Mullins

 

The Braidwood Inquiry was thrown into chaos this morning by the revelation of an email between two senior RCMP officers that states that responding police planned en route to Taser Robert Dziekanski if he did not comply with their orders, despite the fact that he was known not to be able to speak English. The email also says that police saw no evidence of “excited delirium” in Robert’s conduct. Frustrated by non-threatening, Robert died after police shocked him five times. These statements go to the heart of the Inquiry and contradict testimony from the four police that attended the Airport that night. Their testimony is already contradicted by a video of the incident.

 

This morning at 9:30 I sat in the public gallery of the Braidwood Inquiry into the death of Polish Immigrant, Robert Dziekanski at the hands of four RCMP officers. I was there to hear the closing arguments from the many lawyers representing the various parties. I have been to many of these. It’s not like Law and Order, but rather slow, cautious, a little less charismatic and without theme music. Nobody was expecting to hear dramatic new evidence this morning.

 

Days ago, an e-mail came to light that was sent on November 5, 2007, just three weeks after Dziekanski was killed. From Supt. Dick Bent to RCMP Assistant Commissioner Al Macintyre, its subject involved RCMP media communications strategy, something of peripheral relevance to the Inquiry. However the third paragraph suggested for the first time in the Inquiry’s history that the four Mounties concocted a plan (which they denied on the stand) that “if [Robert Dziekanski] did not comply [they] would use a CEW {Conductive Energy Weapon, a Taser].” Further, Bent said of the officers that they saw no “excited delirium” in Dziekanski.

 

This email should have been handed over ages ago, before police testified, so that its contents could be put to them. Department of Justice lawyer Helen Roberts took full responsibility for this eleventh hour discovery but with a wavering voice and through tears, explained that Bent was mistaken no plan was ever formulated “to use the Taser as soon as possible.”

 

The various lawyers for the four individual police all argued that this must be some kind of mistake, and hearsay.

 

Retired judge Thomas Braidwood said he was “appalled” and recessed the Inquiry until September 22, when closing arguments could proceed. In the interim, commission counsel would have to investigate this new evidence and give the implicated officers an opportunity to respond.

 

In the fall of ’07, Dziekanski arrived at Vancouver International to meet up with his mother and start a new life in BC. He could not speak English and was left to wander confusedly through Customs and Immigration for ten hours, failing to meet up with Mom. A frustrated but far from violent Dziekanski met his end when four RCMP approached him and within seconds Tasered him five times. Video shot by a witness shows that Robert fell after the first shock. Police said that he remained standing for at least two shocks. It shows police with knees on his chest and throat.

 

The main argument of the police was that Robert posed a threat to the police; however, thePrichard video does not show Dziekanski acting threateningly towards officers. RCMP asserts that a small office stapler in Robert’s hand is evidence of his threatening disposition. Counsel for Dziekanski’s mother argues that when police pointed to a desk and asked Robert to place his hands there, he may have thought they were pointing at the stapler on the desk. Regardless, a small stapler is hardly a threat to four armed cops.  

 

Earlier this week, lawyers for the four RCMP officers that killed Dziekanski went to court to try to have the Braidwood Inquiry quashed. They claimed that because Braidwood's is a provincial inquiry, he doesn't have the authority to find fault with the federal RCMP. This is a tactic that police have used at several quasi-judicial hearings – attempting to legally pull the plug on the the hearing itself. In this case, however, Justice Arne Silverman rejected lawyers' claims that Braidwood was treading on federal jurisdiction and ruled that the BC Public Inquiry Act could look into RCMP wrongdoing, find fault where proven and make recommendations.

 

While no charges were laid against the officers after the initial police investigation into themselves, former B.C. Attorney General Wally Oppal opened the door to holding the four officers accountable, depending on what Braidwood concludes. Inquiries cannot bring punitive measures against anyone. They can only make recommendations.

 

This Inquiry has clearly illustrated that police are willing to conspire to cover up the truth and cannot be trusted to investigate themselves. We are often told that weapons like the Taser save lives because police don’t have to rely on bullets. However, the frequency and cavalier, hair-trigger way such so-called “non lethal” weapons are used undermines such assertions and is a caution to anyone who comes into contact with police in Canada..