Mother 'angry' Mounties might not be charged in son's airport Taser death
Last Updated: Thursday, December 11, 2008 | 11:47 PM ET
CBC News
The mother of Robert Dziekanski, the Polish immigrant who died at the Vancouver airport last year after being stunned with an RCMP Taser, said she was "angry" Thursday amid indications that the Mounties involved in her son's death won't be charged.
The B.C. Ministry of the Attorney General's criminal justice branch will officially announce Friday morning whether charges will be laid against any of the RCMP officers involved in Dziekanski's Taser-related death on Oct. 14, 2007.
On Thursday, prosecutors met with Sofia Cisowski, Dziekanski's mother, as well as her lawyer Walter Kosteckyi to inform them of the decision, on the grounds that neither would divulge it.
Cisowski, reached by telephone, sounded upset and disappointed.
"I can say nothing today. I am … angry," she told CBC News.
"The decision will be not good for me, absolutely not. I can say only that because I cannot say anything today."
Cisowski said it has taken too long for the prosecutors to make their decision, and everywhere she turned for answers she was not given assistance.
Her lawyer said an ongoing public inquiry is now the way to learn about what happened to Dziekanski that night.
"I can tell you that I think the best forum for getting those answers is through the public inquiry … because the criminal proceeding is to determine a certain amount of guilt [whereas] the parameters of the inquiry is much wider," Kosteckyi said.
Dziekanski, 41, died in the airport's secure area shortly after he was stunned at least twice with an RCMP Taser.
He had arrived the day before on a flight from Poland to take up residence in Canada. He became agitated after wandering the airport lost for hours, unable to effectively communicate with anyone because he spoke limited English.
The RCMP officers called to the scene fired on him with a stun gun even though he appeared to have calmed down. The RCMP subsequently made several public assertions about the incident that were proven false by a video recording made by a bystander.
Former B.C. Supreme Court judge Thomas Braidwood, appointed by the provincial government to conduct an inquiry into the use of Tasers and circumstances surrounding Dziekanski's death, said last month the RCMP officers involved would be subpoenaed to testify if they do not voluntarily take part.
The RCMP replied that its officers cannot give evidence at the inquiry with the possibility of charges still hanging over them. If the charges are indeed dropped on Friday, it would clear the way for the constables to testify.