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Crash Canada: Robert Dziekanski's Short Citizenship
by C. L. Cook
 Nearly 6 O'clock on the west coast of Canada. In a few minutes time, the television news promises to carry video images released just today of the "tasering" death of a man at the hands of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.
Robert Dziekanski, a Polish emigre to Canada died last month before
seeing any more of his adopted country than a Vancouver International
Airport arrivals holding area.
Paul Pritchard, right, accompanied by his lawyer,
Paul Pearson, at a recent press conference, said
that he feels police are trying to manipulate the
truth. (CBC)
The RCMP had a story to explain what happened, but their story changed when the existence of a video of Dziekanski's death went public.
[ UPDATE: Youtube, the video file-sharing giant, pulled the recording of Robert Dziekanski's final encounter with the RCMP, saying it was "not appropriate" for the site. Here's an article about that decision, and, as of writing, a link where it is still available. - lex]
The video itself, taken by a bystander and held as "evidence" by
the Mounties for a month, was just released; and, it's little wonder it
took the threat of a lawsuit for the force to finally relinquish it.
While
the sound and sight of Robert Dziekanski's agonized final moments is a
truly grotesque portrait of what passes for "law enforcement" in Canada
in 2007, more troubling is the broader tapestry revealed; a cavalier
"system" of official disassociation from the well-being of people
necessarily forced through its maze of glass-walled corridors and
opaque corrals.
Never, from the time immigration and border
officials allowed Dziekanski remain "missing," (though thirteen meters
away, in a glass room!) for ten hours without mounting a search,
despite the repeated and increasingly frantic imprecations of his
mother, until the final RCMP despatch, was Robert Dziekanski treated (save by a
few fellow travelers who despite their own captivity in adjacent
holding-areas did try help) with anything but callous, casual disregard; much as a
steer in a feed-lot might expect; right down to the electric coup de
grace.
And: What does that say about us?
Sofia
Cikowski, Robert Dziekanski's mom, drove down from Kamloops; five,
or so hours. CBC television news reported her saying Robert
didn't speak English; "not having one word," she said.
Cikowski spoke briefly in
this day's CBC report, answering presumably to questions of how she felt when going to
Vancouver to meet her now-dead son, who was arriving to move in with her, and
begin a new life in Kamloops.
What can it say to those back in Poland?
What does it say to Canadians?
Are
we ready to make our border known as a place where visitors,
travelers, and citizens can expect public electrocution? Are we willing
to be recognized as a place where a risk is run, at airports and
seaports and every border crossing, of being mistakenly
perceived as a threat to Canada, or one of America's myriad enemies,
and refused transit; or worse?
Welcome to the New Canada: Take a Chance on Us
The
CBC edit of the Pritchard film I saw tonight showed some of the 24 seconds-long
encounter between the RCMP and the just cleared "Canadian resident" Robert
Dziekanski, his final experience, being tasered to death. Twenty four
seconds, says Sofia Cikowskis' lawyer; citing the twenty four seconds recorded from the moment the RCMP walked
on the scene, before firing the taser.
In the interim,
onlookers, already concerned for Dziekanski can be heard in the
background telling police the man can only speak "Russian;" but they are ignored.
As it turns
out, Robert Dziekanski could only speak Polish, but it may as well have
been Greek: the RCMP approach to the whole situation was the epitome of
a "take-down" operation, where the facts on the ground, especially coming from "civvies" on the scene, police aren't interested in and here made no acknowledgment of.
Dziekanski was shocked at least twice, before
he was jumped on and violently pinned by four RCMP officers. This as
his body apparently went into cardiac arrest. Paramedics arrived 12
minutes after being called, but too late for Robert.
Naturally, there
will be a coroner's inquest, but what inquiry will there be of us?
So,
is this our new Jerusalem? the place where we are now to be not only the Grand Inquisitor's torture agents abroad, but apparently too a nation willing to publicly electrocute
"trouble-making" travelers in airport "greeting centres" across the
homeland?
It's a pretty grim picture; kind of like that of the de Menezes kid
slain on a subway car by police in London; citizens zapped dead, or blown away by hyper-security
methods employed as regular police practice within a context of
practical impunity.
It Never Happened, Even as it Did Happen it Never Happened
Paul
Pritchard was at the airport with his camera, ironically just returned from Red China, when his video was seized,
("voluntarily" handed over). Its return later become a matter of contention,
leading to his promise of legal action against the RCMP.
Pritchard told the CBC he was
approached at the scene by one of the four RCMP officers involved in
the lethal incident. He subsequently handed his tapes into police
custody.
The video clearly puts to the lie early RCMP reports, reports
that draw a picture of a combative Dziekanski whose subduing required
repeated 50,000 volt charges and a four man dog-pile.
What
remains unsaid on the CBC is just what this all says about Canada, and
the state we have come to where police powers over-reach has summited with this casual erasure of a human life through the agency of willfully
ignorant policies, enacted by blank-minded secur-matons, pre-determined
to a course of violence.
This isn't Robert's problem anymore. Just as it's not Jean
Charles de Menezes' problem. For the rest of us "little people" trying
democracy's promise, the increased willingness of police forces across
the country to use violence and lethal force against the citizenry, with an escalating
arsenal, the death of "Canadian for a Day" Robert Dziekanski should be
a warning of a big problem; a problem that must be addressed; and
addressed by all Canadians.
Investigations will follow
The CBC reports the holding
area being without water, and presumably toilets. So why did Robert
stay, hour after hour after hour? He could have walked out the
automatic doors, but didn't. He seemed to be trying to prop the doors
open for ventilation, (perhaps because he had fouled himself and was
embarrassed for the smell?), but he stayed in the restricted zone until the end.
Robert
Dziekanski was in distress. Witnesses describe him as breathing
heavily, sweating profusely, and behaving erratically. He was ranting
in a language no-one understood, but witnesses say he didn't seem a
threat, and was isolated from other passengers and the public.
Four
police arrived, shocked, tackled and restrained him; and, his first
day in Canada was his last.
The National too goes on to relate tonight
the long obvious Canadian Forces' connection to the torture chambers of
Afghanistan.
cbc source
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Regardless of where you live in Canada, please call your MP and complain, write to the PM and other Ministers, and you should consider contacting the head of your city police department or your local RCMP detachment with your concerns about the use of tasers, the use of force, and personal skills training.
Canada is supposed to be a free, democratic and peaceful nation. It is our duty to see that it remains as such. Occasionally we do need to remind all elected officials and government employees that they are there to serve the public (not vice versa), and that police constables have taken an oath as "Peace Officers" and as such, are entrusted to protect the public as our servants, not police the public as their servants. This, I believe, is such an occasion.
While police work has inherent risks and we respect their office and the job they do and sympathize when they are injured or killed in the line of duty, they accept those risks when they assume the office. Public safety must take precedence.
Given the widespread use of tasers by police today and 17 taser related deaths in Canada to date, we as citizens of Canada and members of the public need assurances that we will be offered "assistance" and "service" and not be tazed when having a bad day in public (injured, ill, confused, lost or distraught) in Canada.
NOTE:
Please help Mrs. Cikowski take her son’s ashes to Poland for burial.
An account has been established at the Kamloops branch of Valley First Credit Union.
Donations can be mailed to:
"Zofia Victims Trust"
Valley First Credit Union
Kamloops Branch
100-180 Seymour Street
Kamloops, BC
V2C 2E3
http://www.valleyfirst.com/locations/kamloops
(contact them if you have any concerns about the legitimacy of this fund)