Gerry Bellett, Vancouver, B.C. (Vancouver Sun) – A Polish neighbour of Robert Dziekanski clashed numerous times with two lawyers representing RCMP officers Monday at the Braidwood Inquiry when they suggested Dziekanski was an alcoholic or prone to violence.
Iwona Kosowska, who lived in the same apartment building as Dziekanski in the southern Polish city of Gliwice, reacted angrily to the suggestions and threatened both lawyers that she would refuse to answer any more questions if they persisted.
She accused the lawyers of trying to blacken his character.
Kosowska was giving evidence via a video link from Poland and spoke through an interpreter at the inquiry into Dziekanski’s death in Vancouver International Airport after he was Tasered by four RCMP officers.
Under questioning from commission counsel Art Viertlieb, she described Dziekanski as a normal man, friendly, a good neighbour who had an interest in geography and was looking forward to starting a new life in Canada with his mother.
They had known each other socially for more than 20 years, she said, and she had often met him walking his dog.
But she said he was afraid of flying, as he had never been in an aircraft, and he didn’t sleep for 48 hours before he departed from Gliwice to fly to Frankfurt, then on to Vancouver on Oct. 13, 2007.
(Once here he would spend hours wandering around the secure arrivals area of the airport unable to find his mother, who was outside waiting and who left the airport to return to her Kamloops home when told he wasn’t there.)
There was an obvious tension in Kosowska’s evidence, but it turned to anger when she was questioned by David Butcher and then Ravi Hira about Dziekanski’s private life, his habits, disposition, and medical record.
Neither Butcher, who represents Const. Bill Bentley, nor Hira, who represents Const. Kwesi Millington, told Kosowska who they were representing. Both just said they were representing “one of the parties” at the inquiry.
Her frustration and anger boiled over when Hira turned to the amateur video recording of Dziekanski’s last moments alive, showing him tossing items around the arrivals area of the airport before being Tasered by the RCMP.
She had already maintained Dziekanski was non-violent, but Hira said the video appears to show him acting aggressively.
“Absolutely not.”
“But he appears to be throwing a computer to the ground?”
“You stop this line of questioning. I’m not going to answer any more questions. You guys made the mistake and now you want to turn everything around. For me, my friend just got killed in front of my eyes.”
“I’d like you to compare what you see on the video to the what you’ve seen of Robert over 20 years,” Hira said. “Have you ever seen Robert throw furniture against the walls?”
Her voice rose: “Sir, I want to tell you when a person comes to a foreign country without the knowledge of the language, without a cigarette, or having water to drink and no one paying him any attention — what kind of reaction are you expecting?”
“In the video he appears angry.”
“He was a helpless person looking for help.”
“You agree he had a drinking problem, an alcohol problem?”
“Can we stop this? You are trying to make a bad person out of him so you can kill a bad person, not a good person. You are trying to put words in my mouth to say he’s a bad person and had a drinking problem. You won’t hear that from me or from anyone else.”
Hira then attempted to question her about Dziekanski’s alleged criminal record for robbery, but inquiry commissioner Thomas Braidwood wouldn’t allow it.
Outside the court, Hira was met by spectators from the Polish community who said he had no shame.
“I’m doing my duty regardless of what you think,” he told them.
Hira refused to answer any questions from the media who wanted to know the basis of his allegation that Dziekanski had a criminal record.
Lawyer Walter Kosteckyj, representing Dziekanski’s mother, Zofia Cisowski, said outside court that Dziekanski “got into trouble when he was 17” and spent sometime in a reformatory, but didn’t have a criminal record.
He said Hira was “trying to muddy the water and make Mr. Dziekanski appear in a bad light.”
“When you can’t look into the facts as they are, you blame the victim,” Kosteckyj said.
The hearing will continue this week hearing video testimony from a number of Polish witnesses.
To bad Robert is dead because if he was placed beside a member that tasered him he would surely look bad.
I wouldn’t make much of the comments about a record all she should have to say was he was looking forward in joining the RCMP because they apparently take people convincted of criminal charges now and drinking and driving is just another one of their allowances.
This whole case is reaking with in Justices from death to go and they are trying to end it the same way.
Are they trying to say here that everyone except the RCMP are criminals? Check the data and don’t let those guys get away with this tactic all they are trying to do is make everyone look bad that’s all.
This is very serious, very serious.
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