Mountie denies ‘cooking up’ story behind Tasering

Cooking up stories? Why am I reminded of the testimony before the Finance Committee of one of the senior Department of Finance official, Brian Ernewein ( a lawyer no less) who testified: “I guess , if we were incompetent, we wouldn’t admit to it”.....instead , like these disreputable RCMP officers involved in tasering Robert Dziekanski , they “collaborated to fabricate [their] story with an explanation that would justify [their] conduct”.........i.e. the tax leakage alibi.

The tax leakage alibi that few in the press deigned to challenge or even question, even though it had been proven irrefutably bogus during the Goodale round, a year earlier. The tax leakage alibi that allowed Jim Flaherty and Mark Carney (two bad cops on the Finance beat) to taser 2.5 million Canadians saving for retirement. Unfortunately no one was there from the Polish Embassy to protect these citizens from the bad cops in Finance, and too bad the press can only pick up on videos of a crime in action and not written studies, such as the one written by HLB Decision Economics during the Goodale round entitled: “The tax revenue implications of income trusts”.......talk about a smoking gun that proves tax leakage to be a total hoax.A total hoax perpetrated on Canadians by corrupt politicians, bureaucrats and the press (with a few notable exceptions).


As for Robert Dziekanski, consider where this case would be, had it not been for the citizen journalist who was there to record on his cell phone a video account of what actually transpired. I consider myself to be that citizen journalist reporting on Jim Flaherty's fraud, known as tax leakage, since there are so few real journalists left these days who don’t suffer from “job blackmail”, (a term coined by Elizabeth May in her struggles against Inco and their employees’ denials of acid rain).




Mountie denies ‘cooking up’ story behind Tasering
By Suzanne Fournier,
Canwest News Service
March 5, 2009


VANCOUVER -- The RCMP officer who pulled the trigger has denied “lying under oath” and “cooking up” a story with fellow officers about why Robert Dziekanski was Tasered at the Vancouver International Airport.

RCMP Const. Kwesi Millington, who fired the Taser five times at the Polish immigrant, admitted at an inquiry Wednesday that he was “incorrect” and “wrong” about key points of his evidence.

But that wasn’t enough for Don Rosenbloom, the lawyer for the Polish government, who directly challenged Const. Millington.

“You and your fellow officers collaborated to fabricate your story with an explanation that would justify your conduct to your superiors. Do you deny that?”

Const. Millington replied calmly: “We acted according to our training and we did act in a prudent fashion, and I never intended the result [Mr. Dziekanski’s death].”

The inquiry is probing the death of Mr. Dziekanski on Oct. 14, 2007, at Vancouver airport. He died after being Tasered and subdued by the Mounties.

Mr. Rosenbloom charged the officers’ statements have been so similar, yet contradicted by a video taken by a bystander, that it appears “you were fast at work at the scene cooking up your story and it continued back at the detachment. . . . You continued to lie under oath at this inquiry.”

Const. Millington insisted “that never happened.”

Mr. Rosenbloom prepared a “chart” citing the multiple discrepancies between the video and the testimony given at the inquiry so far by Const. Millington and his fellow officers, Const. Gerry Rundel and Const. Bill Bentley.

Brushing aside objections by RCMP lawyers, Commissioner Tom Braidwood told Mr. Rosenbloom to be blunt: “You’re asking whether they got together and faked it?”

“You and your officers made some terrible and critical mistakes,” said Mr. Rosenbloom.

Const. Millington denied that, saying: “We acted in accordance to our training and we did act in a prudent fashion.”

Mr. Dziekanski’s mother, Zofia Cisowski, later claimed the officers “are liars . . . they are not telling the truth. I am so angry.”

But Ravi Hira, Mr. Millington’s lawyer, said outside the court, “He was not lying. My client stepped forward on the witness stand . . . where he made mistakes he admitted them readily.

“He is entitled to Taser a person more than once if situational factors dictate and that’s what he testified.”

Ms. Cisowski’s lawyer, Walter Kosteckyj, cited a “big gap” in the officers’ evidence and “what the video shows,” saying Mr. Dziekanski never raised or swung a stapler “wildly” as a weapon, was not combative, and “never advanced a step and was never aggressive toward the officers.”

The stapler the RCMP claimed Mr. Dziekanski brandished as a weapon was shown to reporters Wednesday in an evidence bag, as a relatively small black “Apsco 17” stapler, made in Sweden, about 33 centimetres long when open.

Mr. Kosteckyj, a former RCMP officer, said the force should “step forward and admit this was not their finest hour” and should also reopen the Integrated Homicide Investigation Team file based on new evidence at the inquiry.

The RCMP were called after Mr. Dziekanski, who spent 10 hours lost at the airport after travelling from Poland, became frustrated and threw a table.

They Tasered and restrained Mr. Dziekanski moments after arriving on scene. Within 12 minutes, Mr. Dziekanski lay lifeless on the ground, handcuffed face down, and couldn’t be revived by first responders or paramedics.

Neil MacKenzie, Crown counsel spokesman, said the decision last Dec. 12 not to charge the four officers criminally “was based on the evidence available and provided by police at the time to the Criminal Justice Branch.”

“If additional evidence becomes available, it’s always open to us to have the matter reviewed and resubmitted to Crown,” said Mr. MacKenzie. “It’s not uncommon for us to return a file to police.”

Vancouver Province
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