How much you know about Canada（六）

Worth repeating: The tale of the tape

Without the video of Robert Dziekanski’s death, the facts of the confrontation would never have been known. Mr. Dziekanski would have just been another faceless fatality at the hands of taser-wielding police in this country. Our trust in the constabulary would have been undiminished. But fortuitously a bystander did record the events that day in October, 2007, and the video shows that RCMP officers, both in their statements recorded immediately after the incident, and in their testimony at the inquiry into the killing, have yet to provide a credible account of their confrontation with the disoriented visitor at Vancouver International Airport.
　　
　　The officer who repeatedly tasered Mr. Dziekanski, RCMP Constable Kwesi Millington, reported that he had not gone down after the first taser discharge, which is untrue. The officer said Mr. Dziekanski had to be wrestled to the ground, also untrue. And there are other discrepancies in his written record. The constable’s report seems designed to justify his and his colleagues’ actions, and the use of a stun gun five times on the distressed man.
　　
　　Then there is the matter of Constable Millington’s claim that he was scared during the incident. Scared of what? Mr. Dziekanski was in the arrivals area of an international airport. It is hard to imagine any place where police are less likely to encounter an armed man. Except that he was armed! As the Mounties (themselves armed to the teeth and wearing bullet-proof vests) approached Mr. Dziekanski, he grabbed an office stapler, the apparent object of this fear.

　At the inquiry on Monday, Constable Millington said Mr. Dziekanski "had the stapler open ... he was in a combative stance." The officer was given a stapler by a lawyer and asked to demonstrate. He held the stapler in his hand, and brandished it the way he says Mr. Dziekanski did. (In fact the taser video also shows the stapler was not raised as high as the officer did in his demonstration, another lapse in the police version of the events.)

　　The re-enactment didn’t frighten the onlookers at the inquiry in the way it is supposed to have frightened the Mounties. People in the gallery actually snorted derision and scoffed, before being silenced by the inquiry chair. It’s unlikely they’d have been any more scared if Constable Millington had "fired" the weapon. There is a reason this country does not have a stapler registry. Office staplers are, ultimately, a threat only to pieces of paper.
　　
　　More than taser-use procedures, then, are of interest at this inquiry.