Jane Armstrong, Vancouver, B.C. (Globe and Mail) – The RCMP has admitted that it provided wrong information to the public about the taser incident involving Polish immigrant Robert Dziekanski in the first days after his death at Vancouver International Airport. But the police force has denied that it lied or deliberately suppressed information about the disturbing circumstances of Mr. Dziekanski’s death.
“We found that there was some information that was provided and made public that was not accurate,” RCMP Sergeant Tim Shields told reporters Tuesday during an impromptu news briefing outside the Braidwood inquiry, which is probing Mr. Dziekanski’s death.
“For those inaccuracies, we apologize and we are sorry,” Sgt. Shields said.
No sooner was the apology uttered than the Mounties’ media spokesman was besieged with questions demanding why the erroneous information was ever put out in the first place.
The RCMP has faced criticism for its handling of Mr. Dziekanski’s death, which occurred after he was stunned by a police taser near the international arrivals lounge at the Vancouver Airport.
Tuesday’s apology was delivered on the same day that the RCMP media spokesman tasked with handling the Dziekanski file in October 2007 took the witness stand. Sergeant Pierre Lemaitre told the inquiry that the errors were honest mistakes and he was simply relaying information provided by another Mountie. Sgt. Lemaitre, who has been with the RCMP more than 20 years, said he never intended to deliberately mislead reporters.
Mr. Dziekanski spent 21 hours flying from Poland to Canada, and then another 10 hours lost in the airport, apparently searching for his mother.
He spoke no English and eventually police were summoned when he began tossing furniture and banging on windows. Moments after police arrived, they tackled and tasered the man four times with a stun gun. He died of cardiac arrest.
Sgt. Lemaitre testified on Tuesday that he was summoned in the middle of the night to the RCMP detachment in Richmond. He was told that an incident with international ramifications had occurred and he was needed because he was bilingual. Sgt. Lemaitre arrived at the police station at 6.30 a.m., was briefed by a fellow Mountie and watched a portion of a video of the incident that had been shot by a bystander.
But many details subsequently released by Sgt. Lemaitre were wrong, and the spokesman did a string of interviews in the next couple of days that repeated the errors. For example, in one CTV interview shown to the inquiry, Sgt. Lemaitre is shown telling interviewers that Mr. Dziekanski did not respond to the first police taser, and that he struggled and fought, even while on the ground.
However, the bystander’s videotape, which was later made public, shows that Mr. Dziekanski screamed and fell to the ground after the first taser.
Sgt. Lemaitre also told reporters in October 2007 that police tasered Mr. Dziekasnki twice, when in fact four electronic shocks were delivered. And in another news briefing that October, Sgt. Lemaitre was asked point blank by a reporter if there was video of the taser struggle.
Sgt. Lemaitre told the reporter there was no video, even though he himself had already viewed it.
When asked Tuesday on the witness stand why he told reporters there was no video of the incident, Sgt. Lemaitre replied that he meant there was no airport security video of the incident.
On the witness stand, Sgt. Lemaitre insisted these erroneous statements were honest mistakes on his part. He was handed this information from a fellow Mountie, Corporal Dale Carr, the media spokesman for the Integrated Homicide Investigation Team, which handles serious crime.
Later, when he found out the information was wrong, he was upset and said he took the matter to his boss. But by then Sgt. Lemaitre was taken off the Dziekanski file and the record wasn’t set straight.
But reporters Tuesday questioned the RCMP line that Sgt. Lemaitre was simply a messenger who was handed the wrong facts. If Sgt. Lemaitre watched the amateur video, he would have seen Mr. Dziekanski drop to the ground after the first taser hit.
“Wasn’t that a flat-out lie?” one reporter asked Sgt. Shields.
“No,” the officer said. “Sgt. Lemaitre gave the information that he had, that he had been briefed with. A police media relations officer is only as good as the information that he or she has been given. And in this case Sgt. Lemaitre made public the information had been given.”
Do I hear you volunteer to join the RCMP and “step up and do so.”
By the way what is “foishness”, I cannot find it in the dictionary?
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Finally for the first time someone within the RCMP steps up to the plate and admits they DID SOMETHING WRONG and provided WRONG INFORMATION about this case, even if it’s a watered down version of what really happened in an attempt to make themselves look good.
But what bothers me now the most about this appology is they don’t want to admit they outright mislead or lied to the public even though they got caught doing so.
The statement, “We have found” – “For those inaccuracies” dah… got caught more like it and are trying to fix it up as usual, is a better description of this watered down appology.
Whoever did this to cover-up this case should be fired and replaced with someone honest and futhermore any other person accross Canada who does this kind of thing to mislead the people and the justice system should be also.
Who looks after this kind of stuff in our Governments and why haven’t they stepped up and do what is right here?
I’m sorry to say that TRUTH and JUSTICE most often don’t even sleep together and this is a very good example of this here.
What I haven’t heard mentioned here is who is really to blame for this. Is it the Polish Government’s fault for not teaching english in their country as a second language or is it the RCMP fault for not properly screened their people and for improperly placing them in the wrong jobs.
Should we not expect their postings to be according to their training, certificates, giftings and callings and would it be a huge mistake not to do so?
We certainally can’t bring Robert back but we can and should do what is right in his memory or this will be a huge injustice and it certainally happen again if no one is held accountable.
The best case scenario would have been that Robert would now have been enjoying his visit to this country making his mother very happy and now we face one of the worst case scenarios that Robert is now burried, he may never have justice and we will all remember him dying in such a vilent manner in one of our Canadian airports at the hands of four federal police officers and this brings sadness to our hearts.
Why would anyone allow a man access to such a dangerous weapon like a stapler or assess to an unsecured area where there is one and not a telephone if this brings LIFE TREATENING FEARS in the MINDS AND HEARTS of four experienced fully armed police officers?
I suggest in the future they should call the girl guides, they may know better how to disarm someone holding a stapler.
No wonder they are facing INTERNALLY and EXTERNAL criticism for this case and others accross Canada.
It troubles me when I think seriously about this case and the loss incured to a life and how the force involved have tried and still do to blame someone else and now this attempt at an appology comes. How can anyone make sence of such foishness or how could it add up to anything that could even resemble COMMON SENCE to anyone reading and listening in and to ADD INSULT TO INJURY, to further deny it was a flat out lie is just impacts it worst and and it’s a horable attempt at making this right.
Their system of addressing the public through the media, how they target people and groups of people, how they glean and filter information, how they hand pick officers to address the media is wrong and someone should be held accountable for this kind of action or lack of it.
Can anyone do this right or will it continue on, if so let him step up and do so.
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