samkorn's blog

Just when you thought it couldn't possibly get any worse, at the ongoing Braidwood Inquiry into the tazering death of Polish immigrant, Robert Dziekanski, at Vancouver's International Airport.

So far, said inquiry has shown that the four RCMP officers involved in Dziekanski's death lied to the Vancouver Homicide Investigation Team (HIT) that questioned them about it afterwards, gave evidence at the inquest contradictory to what the videotape of the incident shows actually happened, and disobeyed RCMP directives governing the use of Tazers.

One can conclude, therefore, that the four Mounties acted recklessly, incompetently and criminally negligently when confronted with a defenceless, distraught and disoriented Dziekanski on October 4, 2007, and tazing him to death.

Now, in a desperate attempt at damage control, RCMP lawyers are interviewing witnesses in Poland and digging into the dead man's past in order to falsely portray him as a drunk and common criminal in his own native land. Such shameful tactics can only serve to further impugn the dignity, integrity and respect for Canada's national police force.

In order to make things right, why doesn't the RCMP simply recognize and admit it's trajic mistake, offer Dziekanski's mother a generous out-of-court financial settlement, and allow the poor Polish victim's memory to finally rest in peace?