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The last hours of Robert Dziekanski

3:20 p.m. His flight from Frankfurt arrives at the Vancouver International Airport.

4:09 p.m. After waiting in line, Mr. Dziekanski is reviewed by primary inspection, which directs him to immigration.

7 p.m. A man calls the Canadian Border Services Agency and says he and his wife have been waiting in the airport for her son, a Polish immigrant, for five hours. The border service officer checks the immigration area and does not find anyone matching the description. The officer then takes the caller's cellphone number. The caller says he was going home to Kamloops.

9:25 p.m. After being "unaccounted for" by security cameras, Mr. Dziekanski is seen in the CBSA hall near a baggage carousel.

10:35 p.m. Mr. Dziekanski leaves the CBSA hall to go to customs. He shows a border services officer an immigrant visa that hasn't been processed. The officer looks through Mr. Dziekanski's luggage for the rest of his documents, but does not find them.

10:44 p.m. Mr. Dziekanski is escorted back to immigration.

11:15 p.m. A border services officer finds two pieces of Mr. Dziekanski's luggage at a baggage counter and brings them to the immigration area.

11:30 p.m. The border services officer who earlier spoke with the man and woman who were to meet Mr. Dziekanski tells another border services officer about the conversation. That officer pages the couple over the PA system while two other officers process Mr. Dziekanski's immigration documents, which were found in his bags.

11:40 p.m. The border services officer who paged the couple calls Mr. Dziekanski's family and leaves a message.

12 a.m. A border officer who has a limited knowledge of Polish completes Mr. Dziekanski's immigration process and releases him.

12:39 a.m. The same border services officer notices Mr. Dziekanski still waiting in immigration and tells him again that he is free to leave. The officer escorts him to the customs secondary area.

12:46 a.m. Mr. Dziekanski exits the area and walks toward the international reception lounge.

2:10 a.m. A woman identifying herself as Mr. Dziekanski's mother calls the CBSA. The border services officer who just helped him speaks to her. He says he had helped her son, would look for him, and get him to call her if he was found. That officer then learns from the RCMP what had happened to Mr. Dziekanski.

Kyle Harland

[Alta_redneck]

Jabrwock wrote:

Alta_redneck wrote:

If this service, that is provided by most major airline for free, had been used he'd be enjoying his Canadian vacation.

How does this help if the airport has no-one on staff who can understand Polish? As if they'd hire someone just for one passenger. I doubt it. Besides, not just a language barrier was at fault here, but rather the inability of CBSA agents to, I don't know, keep track of people passing through Customs, who should be going to Immigration and hasn't shown up for 6 hours. And I'm pretty sure there wasn't a language barrier involved in their inability to check to see if he was on the list of people processed by Customs & Immigration...

Well buddy it works like this, his mother makes the arrangements with the airline before hand and then tells her son that someone from the airline will take him by the hand and help guide him through the process and no the airline wouldn't hire someone that speaks Polish. Then the mother could of contacted Immigration to inform them that they will need an Interrupter for that flight. Then they would go through their books looking for a Polish interrupter that has contract their services to the Federal Government and would have had that person at the airport. The only service Immigration has to provide is in French and English . Just by luck they had someone working that night that was able to speak enough Polish to get him through. Now if there had been someone from the airline to get him from point A to B and on to C and then to D (Momma) he wouldn’t have been standing around for 7 hours. It’s no different than sending a 5 year old by themselves on a plane.
Some people sound as if there must be a lounge there some place full of interrupters well they don’t, but give them a couple days notice and they can get someone.

[Arctic_Menace]

Alta_redneck wrote:

Jabrwock wrote:

Alta_redneck wrote:

If this service, that is provided by most major airline for free, had been used he'd be enjoying his Canadian vacation.

How does this help if the airport has no-one on staff who can understand Polish? As if they'd hire someone just for one passenger. I doubt it. Besides, not just a language barrier was at fault here, but rather the inability of CBSA agents to, I don't know, keep track of people passing through Customs, who should be going to Immigration and hasn't shown up for 6 hours. And I'm pretty sure there wasn't a language barrier involved in their inability to check to see if he was on the list of people processed by Customs & Immigration...

Well buddy it works like this, his mother makes the arrangements with the airline before hand and then tells her son that someone from the airline will take him by the hand and help guide him through the process and no the airline wouldn't hire someone that speaks Polish. Then the mother could of contacted Immigration to inform them that they will need an Interrupter for that flight. Then they would go through their books looking for a Polish interrupter that has contract their services to the Federal Government and would have had that person at the airport. The only service Immigration has to provide is in French and English . Just by luck they had someone working that night that was able to speak enough Polish to get him through. Now if there had been someone from the airline to get him from point A to B and on to C and then to D (Momma) he wouldn’t have been standing around for 7 hours. It’s no different than sending a 5 year old by themselves on a plane.
Some people sound as if there must be a lounge there some place full of interrupters well they don’t, but give them a couple days notice and they can get someone.

We went through almost exactly that when I had a Japanese exchange student living at my house for a couple years many years ago.

After checking through papers to make sure everything was in order, my mom got in touch with a bunch of people from the organization, the school, the government and even the Japanese Embassy and got an interpreter to help the girl when she touched down in Vancouver AND when she got to Ottawa. Whole thing went off without a hitch.

[escotty77]

And she was only visiting. I know that a great deal of Canadians never learn to speak English when they are living in their small communities. Example "Greek Town" My friends father could not speak a word of English.
And I still think that if you want to immigrate to Canada you must speak English and/or French.
I would never think about putting my wifes mother or father on a plane by themselves and expect them to through customs in Toronto without help.
I would feel selfish and lazy. Not to mention worried.