From The Globe and Mail:

No charges called for in report on taser death

17 June 2008

Vancouver — Police have finished their investigation into the death of Polish immigrant Robert Dziekanski and forwarded a report to the Crown that does not call for any criminal charges in the matter, said a spokesman for the integrated homicide investigation team that conducted the probe.

Mr. Dziekanski died last October after being tasered by Mounties when he began acting erratically in the international arrivals area of Vancouver airport. Corporal Dale Carr said it will be up to the Crown to decide whether charges are warranted. Such charges might be laid against the officers involved in the confrontation, police have suggested.

“It’s the full, entire investigation. It’s completed, done,” said Cpl. Carr. A Crown spokesman said the office is reviewing the report.

Related, with video: Justice, truth and accountability for Robert Dziekański

After waiting around in immigration and customs hell for some ten hours, unable to speak or understand English and clearly disturbed, Dziekański was tasered to death within a minute of police arriving on the scene.

Yesterday, Dziekański’s mother, Zofia Cisowski, appeared at the public inquiry into taser use across Canada and specifically into the death of her son.

From the Toronto Star:

Tearful mom urges end to police Taser use

“Mr. Commissioner, my confidence and faith in the RCMP and Canadian authorities are shattered,” she said, dabbing at tears with a handkerchief.

“I was shocked and distressed to learn how my son died after the tape held by police was released to the public, and the story was very different than I was told by the authorities.”

She said her son would still be alive had he not been hit twice with an RCMP Taser, when, appearing confused and agitated after spending many hours at the airport, he was confronted by four officers.

“I know that he did not deserve the treatment he encountered at the Vancouver airport,” Cisowski said.

The current phase of the inquiry is looking into Taser use by law enforcement in general. Later, the commission will look specifically into Dziekanski’s death.

Cisowski said she is eagerly awaiting that second phase.

“I want justice, truth and accountability,” she said in a halting voice in the crowded hearing room.

In her final plea to the inquiry before her tears returned, Cisowski said she hoped the recommendations that emerge from the inquiry are such “that another mother will not experience so much suffering like I do.”

She’s not likely to get justice, truth, or accountability, though at least the latter pair should be fairly simple.

One need only watch the video to see the truth of how Mr. Dziekański died: he was killed by four uniformed thugs armed with electroshock weapons.

If the inquiry leads to criminal charges against the four officers involved, which seems highly unlikely, we might discover which of the uniformed thugs actually pulled the taser triggers, making them directly responsible for this crime. It won’t matter, though, since they’ll have the clown suit defense on their side.

Justice is another matter entirely, and no amount of it is going to bring a grieving mother’s dead son back to life.