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QUEBEC — B.C. Premier Gordon Campbell said he was expressing compassion for RCMP officers involved in the taser death of a Polish man at Vancouver Airport, not support for their actions, when he spoke to a deputy RCMP commissioner about the incident a month later.
“What I said was my heart went out to the four RCMP officers, who were obviously suffering personally as well. It was simply recognizing that our police officers are also people. We ask them to put themselves in harm's way every day,” Mr. Campbell said Friday at the annual premiers conference.
Robert Dziekanski, 40, was tasered on Oct. 14, 2007, by Mounties responding to reports that he was acting erratically. Police fired the stun gun less than 30 seconds after confronting him. His death was captured on video by a bystander, which was widely broadcast on websites and television reports around the world, unleashing a public debate on the use of the taser.
Internal e-mails, obtained this week by the CBC, show that RCMP Commissioner William Elliott made calls supporting the RCMP officers involved in the altercation. The e-mails also related a conversation Mr. Campbell had at the airport Nov. 23 with Deputy Commissioner Gary Bass, who said in his account of the meeting that the Premier was supportive of the RCMP.
British Columbia's Premier Gordon Campbell speaks during a news conference Friday after the Council of the Federation at the Chateau Frontenac in Quebec. (Mathieu Belanger/Reuters)
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Mr. Campbell acknowledged Friday that he spoke to Mr. Bass, who is responsible for the police force's operations in British Columbia, but insisted that his comments should in no way be interpreted as being supportive of the way the RCMP used the taser.
Mr. Campbell said the inquiry into the death of Mr. Dziekanski will determine how the stun gun will be used in the future. The inquiry will also examine the events that took place at the airport to make sure such an incident never happens again, he added.
A memorial for Mr. Dziekanski will be held tomorrow in Pieszyce, Poland. His mother, Zofia Cisowki of Kamloops, B.C., will attend.
“It is a very important event,” said Ms. Cisowski's lawyer, Walter Kosteckyj. “She had hoped her son was going to be here, her parents are buried in the same location and this is the final resting for her son.”
While extending sympathy for the family, Premier Campbell noted that the man's death also had an impact on the officers involved.
“It is something we wish had never happened, I think it is easy to forget the fact that those four RCMP officers are also wishing it never happened,” Mr. Campbell said.
With a report from The Canadian Press.
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