(CTV.ca News) - The RCMP is seeking approval to travel to Poland in order to gather information about Robert Dziekanski, the Polish man who died after being Tasered at Vancouver airport last month, CTV News has learned.
The RCMP told CTV News it would seek to investigate, among other things, Dziekanski’s medical history as well as his criminal history in Poland.
The information would be used in several of the ongoing inquiries and investigations launched in Canada.
The Mounties say they would first need internal approval and diplomatic passports before embarking on the fact-finding mission. It’s not known how many officers would go, or when.
The news comes on the day Polish prosecutors in Dziekanski’s former hometown of Gliwice announced they have launched their own investigation in the man’s death, and said they would seek to find out whether Mounties in Vancouver “exceeded their authority and unintentionally caused the death.”
Michal Szulczynski, a spokesperson for the Gliwice prosecutor’s office, said Wednesday that the investigation was launched Nov. 22 after Polish diplomats in Canada informed Polish prosecutors of Dziekanski’s death.
Video shot by a witness showed police using a Taser on Dziekanski, within 25 seconds of confronting him in the early-morning hours of Oct. 14.
B.C. Attorney General Wally Oppal says the Polish prosecutors are entitled to hold their own investigation.
“They are well within their rights to demand answers for what happened to their national,” Oppal said, adding, “whether or not that investigation has any repercussions is something else.”
Oppal said he couldn’t comment on Polish law and how it may be applied to an investigation involving Canadian citizens.
The Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) released its report into the Dziekanski incident last Monday and there are at least eight more investigations underway, including a public inquiry launched by the B.C. government and a federal inquiry into the RCMP’s use of Tasers.
6 responses so far ↓
1 speaking_my_mind // Nov 29, 2007 at 12:00
This is ridiculous! What does them going to Poland prove? What does this have to do with those guys at the airport screwing up other than providing prejudicial information? And the criminal history part? Well he was given a visa so he couldn’t be that bad. Heck, I know Americans who can’t cross for 1 day because of a DUI 20 years in the past!
This is a witch hunt!
2 GetReal // Dec 7, 2007 at 00:56
Maybe they want to confirm what the paper reported, that the poor man was actually 6′9”, an alcoholic, a smoker, and if he had a criminal / violence record for what? Perhaps somebody going through withdrawal on two substances could be a determining factor on why he was so agitated, and perhaps in a precarious medical position even before the taser was used. Several hours without his needs could shed some light on why after several million people pass through the airport every year, this poor soul was different.
3 speaking_my_mind // Dec 7, 2007 at 09:31
Yeah, I read something about him committing a robbery in the past when he was a kid. Heck, I know of one guy in the RCMP who had a juvenile record for B&E. If a juvenile record is not that important here, why is his teen years in Poland that important?
4 GetReal // Dec 11, 2007 at 03:54
Maybe it is and maybe it isn’t. I would assume it would be more than his teen years that would be looked at. Facts still need to be found to properly assess the culpability of those involved. Facts will determine the degree of culpability of those involved. Facts will determine the appropriate level of sanction.
5 rody1964 // May 8, 2008 at 13:54
This is ridiculous….let’s also go throught all the criminal and health records of the RCMPS directly involved with the death of Robert Dziekanski. There has been a lot of cases of too quick use of this DEADLY weapon….there are several cases in where tasers have been the causes of death or they have triggered a different condition causing a death…on Robert Dziekanski the video shows him alive, he gets tasered and because of that he dies…what more of a proof is needed?….even if he had a heart condition (not proven), the heart condition could have been triggered by the taser…..so, isn’t it common sense to say that the use of the taser killed him?….I think RCMP is trying to confuse us the public with their technicalities which can prove anything, but, the simple fact of common sense….guy get tased and dies…is that too hard to understand and for bloody sakes be ACCOUNTABLE for a change?…RCMPs should take responsability now, save the taxpayers money and in the process come to terms with somehow easy up the weight of a guilty conscience. RCMP procedures should be reviewed….airport’s snob Administrator should be removed after the comment he made days after Robert’s death…..this is a country of inmigrants and prides himself of multiculturalism.. Robert’s story coming here is the story of thousands of inmigrants like myself…I love the country, I love the people, I loved it when Chretien said NO to support the US in their ilegal war…this country in the eyes of the world it’s seeing as a safe heaven for a lot of people around the world this story has gone around the world and it’s serious, people don’t forget….unfortunately a government can do 100,000 things right an a bunch of too easy to press the trigger’s procedures followers’ machines, can’t use the common sense and figure out that 4 RCMP can keep up with a single guy with not a SINGLE WEAPON!, there was NO NEED for a taser!…what a tragedy it really is a tragedy…and now I don’t see search for truth here I see the willingness to gather information to see if some can be unaccountable….it’s funny how truth is always easy to see it comes to the surface like a flower’s petal in the water…nice an easy…..nothing found in the background of Robert’s background will change the single facts of the day he died….that truth is on the surface and 2 days after he was oficially declared as a man forcing with the RCMP…a video shows the opposite, right there, there is a lie now the lies will just start to pill up, BUT!….no matter how big the lies will get, the truth sits clearly on top for everybody to see, that truth is the video that thank god this kid had the courage to fight for…..this kid is a hero in my eyes…I would lift a monument just like this…..2 guys sitting at a park, one a Polish inmigrant, one, a young guy with a video camera…talking and enjoying simple moments.
6 Deepthroat // May 9, 2008 at 17:49
Quite a rant. Maybe they will find that he had monoglutmeitis and that condition or any other mixed with taser = fatality. That would be worth knowing would it not?
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