Taser victim was 'demonized' by RCMP, lawyer says
PAUL PRITCHARD/THE CANADIAN PRESS FILE PHOTO
Robert Dziekanski is seen in this video, taken on Oct. 14, holding a small table moments before his is shot with a taser at the Vancouver Airport. Dziekanski died minutes later.
Petti Fong
WESTERN CANADA BUREAU CHIEF
VANCOUVER – Investigations into Robert Dziekanski's life before his fateful encounter with RCMP officers at Vancouver International Airport are irrelevant, said lawyers for his family and the Polish government yesterday.
Don Rosenbloom, who is representing the Polish government at a public inquiry into Dziekanski's death, said yesterday that Poland is "troubled" by a motion made by one of the RCMP officer's lawyers for copies of Dziekanski's criminal records and any complaints against him reported to police.
"What has that got to do with the investigation of the police and their conduct?"
Walter Kosteckyj, the lawyer for Dziekanski's mother Zofia Cisowski, said the strategy by the police has been to deflect their actions to focus on the victim, who died after he was Tasered by RCMP officers at the airport.
"They've demonized Mr. Dziekanski and made him responsible for what happened to him at an international airport where we're supposed to have facilities to welcome people from around the world," said Kosteckyj.
For a second day, the public inquiry into Dziekanski's death heard video link testimony from friends who knew him in Gliwice, Poland.
Magda Czelwinska said Dziekanski was excited about coming to Canada, a place he considered "the land of milk and honey," and had long prepared for the journey to join his mother by collecting books and magazines about the country.
"His only concern was how was he going to pack all his books about Canada," said Czelwinska.
Czelwinska said she was surprised to see the video shot by a bystander of the moments before Dziekanski was hit five times with a Taser gun because she had never seen him in that state of agitation before. Just before arriving in Canada, Czelwinska said, Dziekanski quit smoking as a surprise to his mother.
Lawyers for the four RCMP officers have questioned whether Dziekanski was an alcoholic. But Ryszard Krasinski, another friend of the Polish man and his chess partner and fellow gardener, said he had never seen Dziekanski drunk to the point of being unable to walk.
David Butcher, lawyer for Constable Bill Bentley, one of the officers involved in the Tasering, asked Krasinski whether he ever witnessed his friend getting angry or throwing furniture around.
"I was in his company on several different occasions and it never happened, anything like this," said Krasinksi through an interpreter.