Vancouver, B.C. (Canadian Press) – A public inquiry into the death of Robert Dziekanski has heard he was nervous and shy but otherwise calm during his trip to Canada, but that image stands in sharp contrast with how police and prosecutors have described the man, says his mother’s lawyer.
Walter Kosteckyj said Monday that Dziekanski, who was stunned by an RCMP Taser at Vancouver’s airport, has been portrayed as someone who caused his own problems.
“The strategy is . . . to vilify Mr. Dziekanski and to say he was the author of his own misfortune and to say basically we hold no responsibility here,” said Kosteckyj, who represents Zofia Cisowski.
“The people that have testified so far aren’t buying into any of that,” he said on the opening day of the inquiry.
Over the next six weeks, the inquiry will examine the circumstances leading up to Dziekanski’s encounter with police, the actions of the officers and the subsequent response from various agencies.
Dziekanski was stunned by a Taser five times on Oct. 14, 2007, after RCMP officers were called about a distraught man throwing furniture in the Vancouver airport’s international arrivals area.
Police and Crown lawyers in B.C. have said Dziekanski was a panicked alcoholic possibly in a state of delirium, an image they cited last month in concluding the force used to restrain the would-be Polish immigrant was justified.
Lawyers for the RCMP officers and Taser International focused their questions on whether Dziekanski had been drinking and whether he was agitated or disruptive on the flight from Frankfurt.
But the inquiry heard from several witnesses, including a fellow passenger and two flight attendants, who said that while he appeared nervous, was sweating and had tired, glassy eyes, Dziekanski was calm and mostly inconspicuous.
Cisowski, who sat in a Vancouver courtroom watching the testimony, suggested the fact that her son appeared sweaty and tired was irrelevant.
“That is not a problem, he was sweating,” she said during a break in the hearing. “They observe that he was sweating or that he was nervous, but why don’t they give him translator? That is the problem. It makes me so sick.”
Cisowski said she has confidence the inquiry will get to the bottom of what happened.
“I want to know the truth,” she said.
“I think everyone tried to lie, because they want to save themselves. I have nothing to lose, I lost what I had.”
The inquiry will compile a detailed timeline of what happened to Dziekanski beginning with his trip to Canada, first on a flight from Poland to Germany and then another from Frankfurt to Vancouver.
Christiane Hewer, a passenger on Dziekanski’s Frankfurt-to-Vancouver flight, said she noticed Dziekanski on the largely empty plane, but he didn’t seem out of the ordinary.
“I saw him sleep a lot,” she said. “He was totally calm. He didn’t attract any attention.”
Two crew members on the pair of flights Dziekanski took to Canada had similar recollections.
Jesus Fernandez, the head flight attendant on Dziekanski’s Lufthansa flight into Frankfurt, said he encountered a Polish-speaking passenger who had mistakenly sat in the business-class section of the plane.
He said the man, who he couldn’t identify as Dziekanski, didn’t speak English and had alcohol on his breath.
But Fernandez stressed the smell was not strong and he didn’t believe Dziekanski was drunk.
“He was calm, he was shy.”
Fernandez said he found a Polish-speaking member of the ground crew to tell Dziekanski to switch seats and that he wouldn’t be served alcohol.
He said Dziekanski complied and was not a problem during the flight.
Patricia Hunter, one of the first Vancouver airport staff to encounter Dziekanski, also said he was sweating and seemed confused, taking a long time to move along and complete his customs forms.
But she, too, said he was not aggressive.
The inquiry will hear from dozens of witnesses, including airport staff, border officials, emergency workers and the four responding RCMP officers as retired judge Thomas Braidwood examines Dziekanski’s death and makes recommendations.
He opened the inquiry by speaking directly Cisowski.
“It is significant that my first mandate is to provide you and your family with a complete record of the circumstances of and relating to your son’s death,” Braidwood said.
“As a parent, I can imagine nothing more terrible than losing a son or daughter,” he said about Cisowski’s loss.
About a dozen lawyers are at the hearing, including one for each of the four RCMP officers.
The current public inquiry follows another headed by Braidwood, held last year, examining Taser use in general.
A report from that inquiry is due out early this year.
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Canada investigates Taser death
BBC – Jan 20, 2009
A public inquiry has begun in Canada into the case of a man who died on an airport floor after police officers used a Taser electric stun gun on him.
Robert Dziekanski, a Polish immigrant who did not speak English, was confronted by four policemen at Vancouver airport in 2007.
A bystander filmed the officers repeatedly stunning him with a Taser.
The police were heavily criticised when the recording emerged but no charges were brought.
The inquiry will hear from up to 80 witnesses and is expected to last six months. It could find the officers guilty of misconduct.
Heated debate
In October 2007, the 40-year-old Mr Dziekanski became agitated and began to behave erratically after wandering around Vancouver’s airport for 10 hours.
Unable to speak English, he had become increasingly confused as he failed to find the public arrivals area where his mother had been waiting for him.
He was confronted by four Royal Canadian Mounted Police officers who stunned him five times with a Taser gun.
The incident has led to a heated debate about the use of the stun guns, the BBC’s Lee Carter in Toronto says.