(Montreal Gazette) – Everyone knows that the Royal Canadian Mounted Police have had their problems in recent years. But what’s happening in Vancouver, at the inquiry into the death of Robert Dziekanski, makes us wonder just how low our national police force can sink.
The Mounties’ hopes of defending their reputation in this case vanished with the publication on that cellphone video showing the airport confrontation. But the RCMP’s tactics at the inquiry are making things worse.
It is conceivable that Dziekanski’s drinking habits had some medical bearing on his death by Taser. But what on Earth was the point of the RCMP lawyer’s rooting around in his criminal record back in Poland? Dziekanski’s mother’s lawyer called that an attempt to demonize the victim, and we can only agree.
Within days of Dziekanski’s death the Mounties had sent investigators to Poland with, apparently, roughly the same motive: to find anything that might partly justify the treatment he received. But what evidence could do that? Even if he had been Osama bin Laden and Bernie Madofff combined, he didn’t deserve death by Taser.
Dziekanski died in October 2007, three months after the government named a new RCMP commissioner, William Elliott, mandated to fix the force. Why is he allowing this kind of defence? How long until we can again begin to be proud of our national police force?
I did not say that nothing has changed under the sun. I said the system has evolved since confederation.
You do not know if the cops are going to be charged at the end of the inquiry or not. Unless you have some inside information you would like to share? Or is that a guess?
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Well like you said; Nothing has changed under the sun so why not look at it right now because it’s going to be the same old, same old decissions and precedures, except of course the added new perk for the arresting officers and them not being charged for their apparent dishonest testimony while using excessive force…
Oh I get it; maybe I can act like I’ve never seen this kind of thing happen before?? Would this be like setting a new precedent to add to the suspected hypocricy already in place????
I’m sure they will all sort it out eventually… we just need to give them time.
About the inquiry it’s not what I would have liked to see…. hehehehehe – it has no bite so I’m sure you were speaking to someone else.
Take Care, don’t take it personal and have a nice day….
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Always mystifies me when people whine for an inquiry packed with lawyers, get one and then whine about what they are doing if it does not fit their idea of “fairness”. Get a grip. The lawyers are running this from the judge in charge through to the defense lawyers and this is what you get. You wanted and inquiry and now you have one but you do not like the actions being taken, only by one side. Well I have a “Walter Cronkite” for you, they are doing what they are being paid to do. They are working within a system that has evolved since confederation. Its all legal and above board and in line with precedent and case law. You do not like how it is unfolding, tooo bad. Wait until the recommendations are out and then you can whine about what was not covered, attested to, revealed, sanctioned or recommended. Then you can address the lack of support for some of the recommendations, lack of speed of implementation, etc.
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All I want to know is; did he or did he not spit on the streets of Canada?
Talk about the Charter of Rights and Freedom; well what about the place where it talks about access to Justice here in Canada, but don’t we still see unfaireness and the lack of it?…. So what is the Charter worth anyways?
Yes NFR maybe he pushed someone in grade one and maybe he was like a repeated offender in kinder garden or something like that for years. Wouldn’t that be like vitally important to this inquiry with no teeth to recommend something that surely will never be taken seriously or implimented.
Shouldn’t we send a team to Poland and spend mega bucks to learn this information in case there’s something there we can use to get off?
After all we just need to find something to explain Robert’s actions that day, other than he was LOST, CONFUSED and SCARED, to sort of like COPY and PAST the REASON or REASONS before the EVENT HAPPENED kind of thing, so the uninformed Canadians can begin to think he wasn’t such a good guy but posed a HUGE treath to the PUBLIC and LAW INFORCEMENT or something folish like that.
Can we have that preception floating around, can we, can we, can we?
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Clearly, the investigation did not go far enough. Apparently, the investigators did not review Dziekanski’s early elementary school record nor interview his primary grade teachers or his mother’s sister’s cousin’s neighbors. We need all the information possible, positive or negative, to judge this event. For example, maybe Robert had a past history of waking from unconsciousness and attacking all those around him. If that were the case, we would understand the decision to prevent unfettered administration of resuscitation and other debatable comforts.
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Persons conducting inquiries in other countries are accompanied by authorities from that country as they have no jurisdiction. It is unclear from the story whether or not it was cops, lawyers or both.
Any information obtained either relevant, supportive, or detrimental is then available for the inquiry. It works both ways. If they find he was a serial killer or they find he was a saint, it ends up before the inquiry. Either way the truth comes out. (so far not so good for the cops eh?) So unless you are suggesting some kind of cover up by the Polish authorities on the information obtained your argument holds no substance.
God forbid we should have a complete picture, totally analyzed by the inquiry, to get sensible recommendations to avoid such a disaster in the future.
As for Mayerthorpe convictions, the lawyers for the accused are doing what lawyers do, just like the lawyers for the RCMP and the accused cops at the airport. Question everything everywhere on anything and try and ensure total procedural fairness. Is this some sort of revelation? Is that not what they are paid to do?
So how does the exercising of legal rights and obligations translate into your condemnation of the police? Perhaps the cops should not have protection of the Charter when accused. Would that satisfy you?
You probably would not like the reports from the neighbors so be careful about what you wish for. It would not be allowed at any rate due to relevancy. Otherwise I am sure the lawyers for Poland, the mother and the inquiry would have them lined up outside the door.
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It seems this is just an example of how far someone will go to get out of any mess they are in, even if in doing so they show disrespect to the family and a dead person.
With business as usual I also I don’t believe they went there without the concent of the Commissioner. If they can’t fix it in the field they take it to the other limits, either way the end justifies the means.
I do hope we get to hear testimony from those officers wives and maybe some of the neibours also – I think this would make things fair for both sides, don’t you?
Maybe they can look into the one who was in charge to see how often he has been suspected of drinking and driving which may have hampered his ability that day to make a good decission… since he lost his own drivers license for 90 day when he was caught drinking and driving after killing someone on a motor cycle.
Here’s another case backing up; How can we fix something like this?
Two jailed in Mayerthorpe RCMP killings appeal convictions
http://www.nationalpost.com/news/canada/story.html?id=1457770
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