Project for a Dziekański Memorial
2 backlit cibachrome lightboxes; International Arrivals, YVR
2014
On October 13, 2007, a 41-year old Polish construction worker and ex-miner, Robert Dziekański, arrived at the Vancouver International Airport on Air Condor flight 6070 from Frankfurt. He was traveling to Canada for the first time, planning to emigrate and live with his mother, Zofia Cisowski, in Kamloops, British Columbia. She had arranged to meet him in the baggage claim area, but this was a secured area she was not allowed to enter; she waited outside until after 10 pm. Having been told repeatedly he wasn't in the airport, she headed back to Kamloops, assuming he had missed his flight.
Dziekański was leaving behind his alcoholic and abusive girlfriend, and had just given up smoking. He spoke no English. His long flight from Poland, due to arrive at 1:40, was two hours late; he arrived just after 3:00 in the afternoon and went through his initial customs and immigration procedures. He was directed to remain in the Customs Hall while his Visa was processed. For the next 6 hours he waited around for clearance; the paperwork wasn't done until about 12:15 on the 14th. After another half hour, he was taken to International Arrivals.
By now Dziekański was becoming increasingly upset and visibly distrught. He jammed a door open with a chair; he pounded on windows; he tipped over a table and dumped a computer on the floor. Airport Security called the police. Four RCMP officers arrived, and ordered him (ins English, which he couldn't understand) to put his hands on the counter. Instead he picked up a stapler, an Apsco 17, and at that point the officers, 25 seconds after entering the room, used a Taser X26 on him. He dropped to the floor and was tasered another three or four times. He went into convulsions; the four officers pinned him down, handcuffed him, used a baton on him, and tasered him again. Dziekański was writhing and screaming and then fell still. No one checked for a pulse. His heart had stopped, but it was another fifteen minutes before Paramedics arrived to began CPR; they were unable to revive him.
The RCMP account of the incident contained several inconsistencies, evident from a videotape of the event made at the time by another traveller, Paul Pritchard. His camera was confiscated at the scene by the RCMP, and later returned with a new memory card. Pritchard sued for the return of the card and then released it to the media, a month after Dziekański's death. As a result of a BC Civil Liberties complaint and the findings of the Criminal Justice Branch of BC to not press charges, criticism of the RCMP led to a Provincial inquiry headed by the Honorable Thomas Braidwood, QC, in 2009, whose final report in 2010 noted that Tasers can be deadly and the RCMP were not justified in using a Taser against Dziekański. A special prosecutor determined there was enough evidence to reopen the case against the four officers; all were charged with perjury, and two were given sentences of 30 months and 2 years, respectively.