(Vancouver Sun) – The first person to deal with Robert Dziekanski at Vancouver International Airport recalled Tuesday he could speak no English and was sweating profusely.
“There was no way to communicate with him,” Monica Kullar told the Braidwood Inquiry, which is probing Dziekanski’s death on Oct. 14, 2007, after he received five shocks from a Taser from an RCMP officer.
“The sweat was literally dripping off his chin,” she said, later adding she had never seen a passenger sweating like that but didn’t think Dziekanski had a medical condition.
The Canada Border Services Agency officer processed Dziekanski at 4:09 p.m. at a booth in the primary inspection area of the customs hall after he arrived minutes earlier aboard a flight from Germany.
“He approached my booth and was speaking rapidly and was waving his [declaration] card,” Kullar said.
She recalled taking his boarding pass and filling in part of his card to show which flight he arrived on and referred him to a secondary immigration inspection.
She wrote “LANG” on his card to indicate there was a language barrier.
She said she didn’t feel the need to get a Polish interpreter to assist Dziekanski because he was referred to a secondary customs inspection, where they would process his landing documents.
Kullar said a Polish interpreter was not available to CBSA officers working in the primary inspection area of the customs hall at the airport – there were only interpreters who spoke Mandarin, Cantonese and Korean.
Kullar recalled she scanned his Polish passport, which recorded his entry to Canada in the computer system, and looked at his visa.
She then pointed him in the direction of the secondary inspection area and he left, she said.
She didn’t notice if he headed in the right direction, she added.
Kullar, a former University of B.C. student who worked for CBSA as a summer job before being hired full-time in September 2006, said she was surprised to see Dziekanski still in the customs area just before she went off shift at 1 a.m. on Oct. 14, 2007.
She recalled seeing Dziekanski talking with another CBSA officer.
“I remember he wasn’t sweating anymore and he seemed a lot calmer,” Kullar told the inquiry.
She said she wondered why he was still in the customs area after so many hours but didn’t try to intervene before she left work.
She also didn’t think of calling in a Polish interpreter to find out why he was still in the secure customs area.
Kullar recalled she was watching the TV news the next evening and learned that a passenger had died at the airport.
“The news report said the man was Polish,” she said, “so I thought it was the same man (as she had dealt with).”
She recalled a supervisor phoned her five minutes later and asked her if she remembered the passenger. Yes, she replied, and her boss said she would have to write a report, which she later did.
She was also interviewed by the RCMP.
Another CBSA officer, Trevor Gross, testified he that he came to work at 8 a.m. after Dziekanski died and was asked to review the security video captured by 13 cameras.
“One of our goals was to determine where Mr. Dziekanski was during that period of time,” he said, adding he also reviewed the video to look for something that triggered Dziekanski’s anxiety level, making him agitated.
Portions of the video are expected to be shown at the inquiry Wednesday.
The 40-year-old immigrant — who was coming to Canada to live with his mother in Kamloops — had never been on a plane before and was nervous about flying.
His mother had told him not to leave the baggage carousel area of the airport because she would meet him there.
Unfortunately, the mother and son never connected at the airport, mainly because the baggage carousel in international arrivals is in a secure area that the public could not access.
His mother asked airport officials if her son was at the airport but no one could locate him, so she went home after hours of waiting.
The inquiry is expected to hear later from the RCMP officers involved in confronting Dziekanski after he began throwing furniture around.
One of the officers Tasered Dziekanski five times.
Dziekanski died after he was restrained and handcuffed.
A shocking video of the incident taken by a citizen is expected to be played at the inquiry.
The tazer did not kill Mr. Dziekanski. Three R.C.M.P. officers watched and did not restrain a fourth R.C.M.P. officer, who stabbed, Mr. Dziekanski in the head or neck area, with a long pointed object, three times. This murder is clearly visable and leaves absolutely no doubt as to the blood crimes of four officers of the Yesterday’s Proud R.C.M.P.
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