RCMP Watch

(CBC News) - RCMP officers involved in the fatal Taser takedown of a Polish immigrant at Vancouver International Airport should be prosecuted for their “excessively brutal and unjustified” actions, a spokesman for the Polish Foreign Ministry said.

“No attempts were made to use other means to solve the situation, but from the very start the toughest means available to the police was used,” Robert Szaniawski told the Associated Press.“We want the matter clarified and we want those guilty named and prosecuted.”

An eyewitness’s video capturing Robert Dziekanski’s death during an Oct. 14 confrontation with four RCMP officers was released Wednesday and has garnered international attention from millions of viewers.

The officers’ actions have prompted widespread condemnation, including criticism from other law enforcement officials, who have questioned the need for a Taser under the circumstances shown in the video.

The 41-year-old Dziekanski, who spoke no English, died shortly after the officers stunned him at least twice as he behaved strangely in a secure airport waiting lounge. He had spent hours at the airport waiting in vain to meet his mother, who had left thinking he had missed his flight.

Currently there are four probes underway into Dziekanski’s death. The B.C. coroner, the RCMP, the public complaints commissioner for the RCMP and the Vancouver Airport Authority are all conducting their own investigations.

Szaniawski’s comments came a day after Piotr Ogrodzinski, Poland’s ambassador to Canada, said his country has invited his Canadian counterpart in Warsaw to meet Polish officials on Monday to discuss the case.

Ogrodzinski told CBC News the Polish embassy has been flooded with e-mails and phone calls from Canadians expressing sympathy and outrage over what happened to Dziekanski.