Taser inquiry lawyers troubled by RCMP email

(CBC News) – Lawyers involved in the public inquiry into Robert Dziekanski’s death at Vancouver International Airport in 2007 are raising new questions about the credibility of the RCMP officers involved.

Dziekanski died after four officers used a Taser to stun him in the airport’s international arrival area, although the exact cause of his death has not been determined.

The officers were all transferred to separate duties weeks later, and at the Braidwood inquiry into the death of the would-be immigrant from Poland, they testified they never had contact with each other.

An RCMP email obtained in a freedom of information request by CBC News could suggest otherwise, according to two lawyers involved.

One of the officers, Cpl. Monty Robinson, was unequivocal at the inquiry about his connection to the other officers present when Robert Dziekanski died.

“It’s your testimony that you have never had conversations with these officers regarding the incident,” Robinson was asked by Don Rosenbloom, a lawyer for the government of Poland.

“No,” Robinson said.

In an email exchange in August 2008 — months before the officers testimony at the inquiry — RCMP Supt. Mike Aubry asked staff relations representative Mike Ingles if the officers had any “issues” with appearing at the inquiry.

In his reply, Ingles said he had spoken to someone — whose name is blanked out in the copy of the email given to the CBC — and that “he will be discussing it with the others.”
Concerns about credibility

Such conversations would not be remarkable, except that the officers insisted none took place, said B.C. Civil Liberties Association president Rob Holmes.

“If it is the case they have in fact engaged in those kinds of liaisons and communications either directly or indirectly, that would raise serious concerns about their credibility, not just on this one point but generally,” Holmes told CBC News.

In the same email, Ingles refers to the four officers under investigation, as “the guys,” and that troubles Rosenbloom.

“‘The guys would suggest they think of it as family and thinking of it as family while at the same time they are supposedly investigating whether their officers may have misconducted themselves, that surprises me,” Rosenbloom said.

The lawyer for Robert Dziekanski’s mother, Walter Kosteckyj, said he was also troubled by the apparent discrepancy between the officers’ testimony and the email and said he will raise the issue when the inquiry resumes Sept. 22.

In April, commissioner Thomas Braidwood issued confidential notices of misconduct against each of the four RCMP officers present at the incident. The notices stated that Braidwood may make findings of misconduct against the officers in their actions at the airport, as well as in statements made to investigators and in their testimony at the inquiry.

Braidwood’s July 23 report on the first phase of the inquiry contained 19 recommendations, including a call for police to “severely restrict the use” of Tasers.