BC to Take Second Look at Prosecuting the Vancouver Airport Four in Dziekanski Killing

That didn't take long. Perhaps embarrassed by the Braidwood Report, the BC government has announced it will appoint a special prosecutor to review whether the mounties who killed Robert Dziekanski should be prosecuted and for what.

About damned time.

Long before the evidence was in, Victoria announced the mounties would not be prosecuted for the homicide itself. Those who viewed the bystander video of the killing and followed the Braidwood enquiry were never in any doubt that the Campbell government was boneheaded.

In a statement, Attorney-General and Solicitor-General Mike de Jong pointed to the report’s findings that “a number of discrepancies between what RCMP officers told investigators in 2008 and what came out at the inquiry” as the rationale for the appointment of a special prosecutor.

The province will also move to enact a key recommendation of the Braidwood inquiry, saying it will launch within a year a new civilian-led investigations unit that will be able to conduct criminal investigations into any police-related incidents involving death or serious harm.

The unit will be headed by a civilian who has never been a police officer, Mr. de Jong said in a statement. Its mandate will be to investigate all independent municipal police- and RCMP-related deaths and serious incidents across British Columbia.

I'm sure this flip-flop won't be enough to redeem BC's none-too-liberal Liberals and save their worthless hides in the next election but the news is welcome enough in any case.

Demand Dziekanski's Executioners be Prosecuted

If there was any doubt that the killing of Robert Dziekanski at Vancouver Airport in 2007 was totally unjustified, that's put to rest by the rulings of the Braidwood inquiry. Tom Braidwood plainly found that the executed man was compliant at the time he was attacked, that the tasering was unjustified and that the tall tales these four uniformed thugs cooked up were unbelievable.

Even before the inquiry got underway, BC's Attorney General's office announced the four horsemen would not be prosecuted for the homicide. That doesn't mean we should stand by and accept that decision.

If you disagree, if you think these cops need to feel the full weight of the law, let the AG know. Contact Mike de Jong here and tell him what's on your mind.

Braidwood - Dziekanski Mounties "Unjustified, Unbelievable"

Tom Braidwood has lowered the lumber on the RCMP thugs who executed Robert Dziekanski at Vancouver airport in 2007.

After hearing the lockstep fairy tales spun by the officers in their testimony before his enquiry, the former judge concluded that:

...[RCMP Constable Kwesi Millington] was not justified in deploying the weapon, and that neither that constable nor the corporal honestly perceived that Mr. Dziekanski was intending to attack any of the officers.

"I concluded that the other two constables, during their testimony before me, offered patently unbelievable after-the-fact rationalizations of their police notes and their statements to [Integrated Homicicde Investigation Team] investigators."

By corporal, Mr. Braidwood, was referring to the commanding officer presiding over the three other constables who responded to reports Mr. Dziekanski was acting erratically.
Mr. Braidwood said claims by the officers they wrestled Mr. Dziekanski to the ground "were deliberate misrepresentations made for the purpose of justifying their actions."

He also said he disbelieved claims there was no discussion among the officers before being questioned by investigators "although I did not conclude they colluded to fabricate a story."

Now the question becomes whether these killers are above the law even though the BC government has said they won't face prosecution for Dziekanski's death. If nothing else, decency should require the lot of them be slammed up for their rank, odious perjury before the Braidwood enquiry.

Read the entire report here.

Blaming the Victim - Mountie-Style

Robert Dziekanski was derided as a "whackjob" by the lawyer for Kwesi Millington, the RCMP constable who tasered Dziekanski to death at Vancouver airport.

Ravi Hira, the lawyer for Const. Kwesi Millington, stressed witness accounts that paint Dziekanski as a "whackjob" and an "unusual passenger" and made constant reference to potential alcoholism.

"It's relevant to perhaps the cause of death. It's relevant to perhaps his actions. It's relevant to why he acted the way he did," Hira said after commissioner Thomas Braidwood questioned his approach during closing submissions.

All the while, a heartbroken Cisowski twisted and turned in her seat at every remark and had to be restrained at times by her victims' services handler.

"Oh my God," she cried. "Oh my gosh."

Public observers at the inquiry offered their support to the grieving mother, who confessed listening to the remarks was "so upsetting."

So that's what it's come down to. The officers' defence is going to be that Dziekanski got what he had coming to him. His death was his own doing. Isn't that the same thing they said about Ian Bush when they blew his brains out with a bullet to the back of his head while in police custody?

RCMP Commish Elliott Apologizes. Really?

It took almost two years, a bystander's video of a killing, a judicial inquiry and a senate committee hearing but, finally, RCMP Commissioner Bill Elliott has apologized for the death of Robert Dziekanski at the hands of four officers at Vancouver airport in October, 2007.

"We are very sorry for Mr. Dziekanski's death, and are committed to learning as much as possible from this terrible event," he told the upper chamber's committee on defence and national security.

"We must continuously strive to learn and to improve."

Somehow an apology from Elliott seems a little late, rings a bit hollow. I suspect Elliott has figured out the mauling his RCMP is about to receive from inquiry commissioner, Justice Tom Braidwood, and he sees a vision of blood on the floor, some of it perhaps his own.

In terms of damage control it's hard to imagine that the RCMP, from the Commissioner's office on down, could have made a worse mess of it. Knowing they had seriously misled the public with their account of the killing and doing nothing to correct their falsehoods until their hand was forced at the inquiry speaks of a culture of arrogance, indifference to the Canadian public and an utter lack of remorse at having taken this man's life. The close look at these officers provided by the inquiry has been anything but confidence building.

No, I think Elliott's apology should be chucked where it belongs - in the circular file.

Re Dziekanski - Elliott Has Some Explaining to Do

Earlier today I wrote an item about a curious statement RCMP Commissioner Bill Elliott made during an interview with the Toronto Star. Here's what Elliott said:

"We will make submissions to the inquiry," said Elliott. "I think it's fair to say that we will say if we had to live life over again, and I'm sure that our members would say – I've never discussed this with them because I've never discussed this incident with them – if they had to live life over again, there are things that they would do differently."

At first I thought that Elliott was saying that he'd never discussed the Dziekanski business with members of the RCMP. That sounded patently ridiculous so I concluded he must have meant that he hadn't discussed it with the four officers involved - keeping his distance so to speak in contemplation of an investigation. Then I got this comment from Dr. Dawg:

"A day after the release of an eyewitness video of the events leading up to Dziekanski's death, the RCMP commissioner called the four officers involved in the incident and expressed his support, according to the partially redacted e-mails.

"I have just now placed calls to all four members. I spoke to three of the four," Elliott wrote in an e-mail dated Nov. 15 to Gary Bass, the RCMP deputy commissioner for the Pacific region.

"I know this is tough on you and all our folks in E Division. Please be assured of my ongoing support," Elliott wrote.

One of the several troubling aspects of the Dziekanski affair has been the persistant efforts of the RCMP to mislead the Canadian public.

The CBC story revealed that, far from not talking to members about Dziekanski, Elliott moved with the speed of a veteran political functionary to bring the controversy into his Ottawa headquarters where he could institute damage control:


Dziekanski died after being zapped with a stun gun at the Vancouver International Airport on Oct. 14, 2007, by RCMP officers who were called to help deal with the Polish immigrant, who apparently became agitated from spending 10 hours at the airport. From that day, RCMP e-mail exchanges obtained by access to information requests suggest the force moved quickly to create a strategy.

The strategy involved all answers being vetted in Ottawa, including ones described by RCMP Commissioner William Elliott as "tough or dirty questions" from the media.

You can read the entire CBC News report from last July, here:

http://www.cbc.ca/canada/british-columbia/story/2008/07/16/bc-rcmp-emails-taser.html

This erases any remaining doubt that Elliott was and is directly and fully responsible for the way the RCMP misled the Canadian public and our media. It's time he moved on.

RCMP Commish Didn't Discuss Dziekanski?

The RCMP's new Tory boss, Commissioner Bill Elliot, gave an interview to the Toronto Star in which he's quoted as making this curious statement about the Tasering death of Robert Dziekanski:

"We will make submissions to the inquiry," said Elliott. "I think it's fair to say that we will say if we had to live life over again, and I'm sure that our members would say – I've never discussed this with them because I've never discussed this incident with them – if they had to live life over again, there are things that they would do differently."

Bill Elliott has never discussed the Dziekanski killing with members of his very own RCMP? That strikes me as quite astonishing in that this one incident has brought international disgrace on his force and has plainly undermined the public's support and trust in the RCMP.
I hope what Elliott is trying to say is that he hasn't discussed the incident with the four officers directly involved.

"Frankly, as commissioner of the RCMP I'm concerned about our officers not using enough force and putting themselves in danger."

Elliott acknowledged he is concerned about the "potential" erosion of public confidence in the RCMP, insisting he doesn't take Canadians' support "for granted."

But, citing anecdotal evidence, he said he does not believe the Dziekanski affair or all the scrutiny on the RCMP's use of Tasers has significantly damaged people's confidence in the national police force.

Asked if part of the problem for the RCMP has been its refusal to admit any mistakes were made, Elliott said: "Well, maybe it is."

If Elliott hasn't spoken to serving members of the RCMP about the homicide of Robert Dziekanski, it's pretty obvious that he hasn't bothered to find out what the Canadian people think either. Throughout this sorry business, Commissioner Elliott has seemed contentedly oblivious, even indifferent. Someone needs to remind him of "the buck stops here" rule. It was very much Commissioner Elliott's RCMP that continued to insist on its bogus account of what actually happened until it backed down and apologized just this past Monday. Elliott needs to figure out that the responsibility for having misled the public is first and foremost his own.

Don't Give Guns (or Tasers) To the Reality Challenged

A supposed 'expert' from the Vancouver Police force has told the Braidwood inquiry that his four RCMP colleagues acted reasonably in killing Robert Dziekanski.

If this is the way cops think, we've got a problem.

VPD sergeant Brad Fawcett told Justice Braidwood that, because the officers perceived Dziekanski was about to attack them, as all four so conveniently claimed in the post-killing debrief before they were aware a bystander had video recorded the events, then that's good enough for him.

Sergeant Brad said we shouldn't second guess the cops. If they said they were under attack, of course they must be telling the truth. No point letting some dumb video make them out to be total liars. But wait, there's more. The Toronto Star reports that Sarge Fawcett testified that the video (yes, the one we've all watched) corroborates the officers' accounts:

The inquiry has heard that those statements conflict with the video, but Fawcett found the officers' statements were supported by the video.


For example, his report appears to accept the officers' claims that Dziekanski remained standing immediately following the first Taser jolt, with his hands clenched around the stapler. The video shows Dziekanski flail about for a few seconds before collapsing on the ground.

When one of Dziekanski's arm lifts above his head, the stapler visibly flying away, Fawcett's report describes the action as ``consistent with striking or throwing."


The report brushes aside other inaccuracies – for example, that Dziekanski had to be wrestled to the ground – as "minor in nature."

Fawcett agreed with the officers that Dziekanski appeared to be fighting back after he collapsed to the floor.


He said it doesn't matter whether Dziekanski was actually resisting or if he was reacting to the pain of the Taser.

"If the officer perceived it to be a response to the push-stun (Taser deployment), that would be one thing," he testified.


"If the officer's perception was it was conscious resistance on the part of the subject, then that's another matter."

If this is the basis on which cops investigate cops, we have a very serious problem. You shoot 50,000 volts through a man's body and, when he spasms, you're entitled to claim he's resisting and shoot him again? Perhaps you can just keep going until the body is so stone cold dead it won't twitch any more when you blast it with electricity.

Memo to the cops. Perception isn't an excuse unless its entirely consistent with the evidence of what actually happened. You don't get to put people to death on misperception. "Oopsie" isn't good enough nor is perception to be a vehicle of convenient contrivance to mask culpability

If cops aren't able to mix it up when they're in a four on one situation with a guy holding a stapler, we're relying on a defective batch of cops and we'd do well to discard them and recruit replacements who can do the job without resorting to potentially lethal force at the hint of someone waving a stapler. These guys are useless, they're bums. Worse yet, none of us is safe with guys like these in our midst carrying guns. You just never know when they might have a perception.

Don't Forget Perjury and Obstruction of Justice

It's the smell of election bacon fryin' in the pan.

BC A-G Wally Oppal has again suggested that the four RCMP officers who put Robert Dziekanski to death could still face criminal charges. What charges?

Murder - no, wouldn't stick. No evidence of intent. Manslaughter - too iffy. Criminal negligence causing death? That seems fitting. But wait, there's more!

These cops deserve to be prosecuted for what they did in the aftermath of this innocent man's death. They made up a blatant, Cover Their Collective Ass story, about being assaulted by a wild man with a stapler. Four cops, Canada's finest, professionals, trained in the art of observation - all told the same tall tale. Each of them conjured up the same exculpatory fantasy. Each corroborated each other. All of them did this and their corroboration probably would have been an end to the whole matter but for a bystander's video they knew nothing about when they gave their bogus accounts.

I think they've made the case against them for obstructing justice by trying to mislead investigators in the immediate wake of the killing. One guy could have been incompetent enough to get it flat out wrong but not all four.

Then they sought to perpetuate their fantasy, under oath, before the inquiry. That suggests that they've each committed perjury to boot.

I think they ought to face some charge, even if only criminal negligence, for the wrongful death but I think there's not the slightest doubt they need to be held criminally accountable for the outrageous conduct they displayed from the moment of Dziekanski's death to the end of their testimony before the Braidwood inquiry.

Wally Oppal's been around the block more than a few times. He knows what to make of this.

Oppal Willing to Reconsider Dziekanski Prosecution

"We're Interested in Doing the Right Thing"

Then again, with an election looming large next month, what government official wouldn't be interested in doing "the right thing" in the face of public outrage over the death of Robert Dziekanski at the hands of four RCMP officers at Vancouver International Airport?

BC A-G and former Supreme Court Justice Wally Oppal says the Crown's decision not to prosecute the officers isn't all that final after all.

“Nothing is final . . . particularly where we’re getting more and more evidence elicited on a daily basis,” Oppal told the CBC, referring to the inquiry evidence. “So it may well be, at the end of the day, the people in the criminal justice branch could re-examine this.”

http://www.calgaryherald.com/news/RCMP+officers+charged+Dziekanski+death/1492808/story.html

Sorry Bill, We Saw Them Kill Robert Dziekanski

The Tory bureaucrat handed the reins of the RCMP by Stephen Harper has come out with his first statement on the tasering death of Robert Dziekanski and it's a remarkably lame dodge at that.

Commissioner Bill Elliot says the public - those of us who've had the chance to watch that grotesque video - shouldn't prejudge the four young, fit, healthy, armed and armoured cops who put Dziekanski to death. From the Conservative Television Network:

...Elliott has called on the public to wait for "a sober, sound examination of the facts and the circumstance" before forming negative opinions of the national police force.

... Elliott said the public must understand the very quick decisions that RCMP officers are forced to make when working on the job.

"They don't realize how quickly things happen and they don't realize how quickly often -- unfortunately -- bad things happen."

Well Bill, the execution of Robert Dziekanski was certainly quick so I guess you've got a point there. And rest assured Mr. Commissioner that we do understand. Everyone around the world who watched that video understands. Everyone who has read the astonishing and false statements the officers gave in the immediate aftermath understands. These are guys who are trained observers and yet, before they were aware that a civilian video existed, they all gave accounts completely dispelled by that video.

Bill, we understand. We get it. Do you?

Wally, It's Time to Charge Those Mounties

Maybe there isn't a winnable case against them for actually killing Robert Dziekanski. It is possible that even manslaughter charges wouldn't stick - possible. But it's becoming increasingly obvious that, in the immediate aftermath of this horribly wrongful homicide, these officers went into full blown coverup mode.

Before the passerby video came out the four mounties gave wildly false statements, claiming that their victim charged them, threatened them with a stapler, even fought them. But for that video they might have gotten away with it.

Surely there's ample basis for charging these guys with obstruction for trying to mislead investigators. Does anyone believe a lay person wouldn't be charged if they tried something like this?

These cops - four of them - highly trained to be skilled observers - either couldn't remember what happened or fabricated an exculpatory deception. They haven't done themselves any favours either by sticking with their excuses at the Braidwood inquiry until confronted with the video and forced to back down.

That these four should be sacked is far beyond question. We don't need cops this honest. But the very idea that they might be handed a severance cheque and allowed to simply walk out the door is unbelievably galling.

Wally Oppal - if you're not prepared to charge any of them for what they did up to the point of Robert Dziekanski's death, you have no excuse for not charging them for everything they did afterward. When it comes to holding mounties accountable, British Columbia doesn't have a great reputation. It's time that changed.

No More Acid Trips for RCMP

I hope the Braidwood inquiry recommends that on-duty RCMP officers be strictly forbidden from using LSD. They can't handle it. The hallucinations are simply too dangerous to the public.

That much is clear from the evidence given today by constable Kwesi Millington, the officer who administered five Taser blasts to Robert Dziekanski at an arrivals lounge at Vancouver airport.

In a rare example of quality journalism, the Globe & Mail's Ian Baily captured all the mirth and hilarity that accompanied Kwesi Millington's testimony today:

A bulletproof vest, handgun, baton and pepper spray were not enough to quell the fear RCMP Constable Kwesi Millington says he felt when confronted by Polish immigrant Robert Dziekanski during a fatal October 2007 incident at Vancouver airport.

"He had the stapler open, his other fist raised. He was in a combative stance, as we call it, and was approaching the officers, I believe, with the intent to attack so I deployed the taser at that point," he told the Braidwood inquiry into Mr. Dziekanski's death on Monday.

..."Can you tell us how four healthy men from the RCMP could not gain control of him when he's in that position?" commission counsel Art Vertlieb asked.

"I don't know why he was not under control. He was fighting so that's why we had to use [the taser]."

Mr. Vertlieb later asked the officer whether he was "scared."

"Yes," said Constable Millington, who earlier noted that the fact the stapler was open would make it "more" of a threat.

Within moments, Mr. Vertlieb had the constable take the actual stapler in question and hold it to show the inquiry how Mr. Dziekanski brandished it. Constable Millington, 32, stood in the witness box and complied.

The resulting scoffing sounds, snorts of derision and other noises from the spectators' gallery grew so obvious that inquiry head Thomas Braidwood, a former B.C. supreme court justice, had to counsel spectators to cut it out.

Jeebus, this hearing is turning into high comedy. Dziekanski had the stapler opened. Why, surely, he must've chambered a round, eh? Well, eh? What could be more combative than a guy holding a stapler? Who's to say it wasn't a weapon of mass destruction stapler? Maybe it was loaded with curare-tipped staples or maybe anthrax. You can't be too careful, 'specially when you've only got four officers, eh?

Christmas! Even the gallery can't keep a straight face as these mounties, Canada's finest, tiptoe down the path of absolution.

Here's my take. I've had dealings with Tommy Braidwood going back 30-years. I've known the commission counsel Art Vertlieb and the government of Poland's counsel Don Rosenbloom. These cowboys in yellow striped pants don't have a snowball's chance in hell of blowing smoke up any of their backsides. One by one they're just getting themselves in deeper and deeper.

If Harper's boy Elliott has any hope of rehabilitating the RCMP, he'll have to find better officers than these four.

But For a Couple of Minutes of Bystander Video

If it wasn't for a couple of minutes of bystander video, Robert Dziekanksi's killing would have been reduced to a few lines in the local papers and quickly forgotten.

I wonder if the cops involved even imagined such video existed when they gave their statements after their victim's lifeless body had been hauled away to the morgue.

The "RCMP story" (curious how those two words have become a term of art here in B.C.) was that the four mounties were acting in self-defence when they Tasered Dziekanski five times, wrestled him into cuffs and left him on the floor, unattended, to die.

In the immediate wake of the killing one of the officers, constable Bentley, gave a statement in which he claimed, "right away [Mr. Dziekanski] started backing up, looking for something to grab. He uses an object and putting that in front of him he kind of swung it at us."

Unfortunately for the officers, the government of Poland is represented at the hearings by a highly-skilled criminal lawyer, Don Rosenbloom. In cross-examination, Rosenbloom confronted Bentley with the video, frame by frame, and dismantled his statement:

Mr. Rosenbloom reviewed for the inquiry the video footage recorded at the scene by passerby Paul Pritchard. Run at slow speed, the video shows one of the four RCMP officers directing Mr. Dziekanski away from the spot where they were all gathered, and in the direction of a counter inside the secured area.

Identified ...as Corporal Benjamin Monty Robinson, the officer had his arm extended. He pointed a gloved index finger.

Mr. Dziekanski is seen throwing his hands up in air, as if in resignation, and walking in the direction as commanded. The four officers then surrounded him.

Const. Bentley's reading of the events: "I interpret [Robinson] as giving him an order. For using body language or pointing to direct him somewhere."

"Precisely," said Mr. Rosenbloom. "He's giving him an order. And the order is for him to move to the counter. Do you not agree?"

Not quite: "I perceive it as him ordering him over to the counter, after he's thrown up his arms and walked away from us... [But] I'm uncertain whether he's complied with that order because his behaviour to me changed before Cpl. Robinson directed his arm to the counter," Const. Bentley said. "So, from what I'm seeing, Cpl. Robinson is reacting to Dziekanski's behaviour."

On it went: Mr. Rosenbloom proposed what seemed obvious; Const. Bentley demurred or deflected. He would not admit that Mr. Dziekanski had correctly complied with the order to move to the counter.

On which sat the stapler. No one had directed Mr. Dziekanski to pick that up, of course. His bad decision was fatal.

But why had Const. Bentley claimed in his initial police statement that, at the moment of first contact with the RCMP, "right away [Mr. Dziekanski] started backing up, looking for something to grab. He uses an object and putting that in front of him he kind of swung it at us."

He conceded that he had not "articulated it the best." He hadn't meant to mislead police homicide investigators in explaining the RCMP's role in the Dziekanski incident.

This simply doesn't wash. They're cops. They've been trained to carefully observe in order to be able to give evidence at trial. We send people to prison every day on the strength of what cops say in court. Yet this cop isn't intending to mislead when he claims it was Dziekanski who chose to move to the counter, who grabbed the stapler and who then swung it at the officers when, as shown on video, he was told to move to the counter and didn't "swing" the stapler at all?

This thing smells like week-old fish guts sitting on the dock. It's no wonder Poland wants to bring proceedings against these cops. They're called "Mounted Police." That doesn't mean they're supposed to be cowboys.

http://www.nationalpost.com/news/canada/story.html?id=1333522

Dziekanski Died Because Mounties Wouldn't Use Mace

Another day another story about how four mounties were messing their drawers when they encountered Robert Dziekanski at Vancouver airport.

Four fit cops, wearing ballistic vests and the standard kit every officer carries, were scared witless by an unarmed, middle aged, clearly distressed little man.

Constable Gerry Rundel told the inquiry today that he believed Dziekanski had "every intention" of harming the four officers. This must be a very dark and frightening world for poor constable Rundel.

Here's one thing to remember. In addition to their all-too-often lethal Tasers those cops carried utterly non-lethal pepper spray. If those sissies really believed Dziekanski needed to be subdued and couldn't find among their eight arms two strong enough to do the job, they could have maced the guy.

So why did they choose the Taser over the mace? Because an airline rep told them that a load of passengers was due to pass through that arrival lounge in a little while.

That's why the cops rushed the guy, why they gave him five jolts from their Taser. They were in a hurry to take out the trash.

RCMP - Well Deserved Contempt

The Globe's Gary Mason has skilfully dissected the RCMP's handling of the Robert Dziekanski homicide at Vancouver airport in October, 2007:

That the Crown wouldn't charge the RCMP officers involved in last year's airport death of Robert Dziekanski was inevitable.

That the Mounties would stoop so low in attempting to explain how and why Mr. Dziekanski met his demise, well, I don't think anyone quite imagined that.

He didn't die because he was tasered five times by three RCMP officers in October of 2007 in an arrivals area at Vancouver International Airport.

He died, we've been told, because he drank too much and had a fear of flying. And when you mix those two things with 50,000 volts of electricity, terrible things happen.

As Mason points out, the verdict of British Columbians is plain. Robert Dziekanski died from the unjustifiable application of excessive force by no less than four, burly RCMP officers who were neither attacked nor realistically threatened. We watched the video. The world watched the video. We saw an unarmed man who died at the hands of the police.

I've talked to many British Columbians about this killing and I haven't found a single person who says they believe or believe in the RCMP any longer. People now see RCMP officers as cops to be feared, not trusted. And when they do kill someone and they do investigate their own killings, we don't buy their facile excuses any longer either.

There's something terribly wrong with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. Harper appointed his own Tory apparatchik to head the force, to clean it up, but whatever Bill Elliot may have done or may be doing, it needs to be out in the open, in the plain view of the public.

It's up to the RCMP, its officers and its leadership, to begin the enormous task of repairing the public's trust. They've gone well beyond the point where time alone will heal these wounds.