The Braidwood inquiry was thrown into an uproar today after a Department of Justice lawyer representing the RCMP made a late disclosure of an email exchange between two senior RCMP officers just as closing submissions were about to begin. The BCCLA is a participant at the inquiry.

The email was an exchange between the two most senior officers in the “E Division” of the RCMP, and suggests that the four RCMP officers went into the airport planning to taser Mr. Dziekanski before they even saw him. At the inquiry, the four officers denied that they had discussed a plan in advance of arriving at the airport.

The email, however, suggests that one or more of the officers told their superiors around the time of the incident the exact opposite. Further, the email suggests that they contemplated using the taser not in accordance with RCMP policy and training.

The e-mail from Supt. Dick Bent to RCMP Assistant Commissioner Al Macintyre, dated Nov. 5, 2007, said: “Finally, spoke to Wayne [Rideout] and he indicated that the members did not articulate that they saw the symptoms of excited delirium, but instead had discussed the response en route and decided that if he did not comply that they would go to CEW (conducted energy weapon).”

The issues raised by the email are highly relevant and go to the very core of the inquiry’s mandate. The public deserves a full explanation of the email’s contents and its drafting, and significantly, why it wasn’t disclosed many months ago. Further, the public’s confidence in the RCMP has been shaken and we need assurances that the RCMP is disclosing all relevant materials.

Inquiry Commissioner Thomas Braidwood said that he was “appalled” that the RCMP had not disclosed the information months ago, and ordered that the inquiry be postponed so that the contents of the email could be investigated. He stated that further evidentiary hearings may be required.

Commission counsel Art Vertlieb, who outlined the e-mail suggested that it may be necessary to recall the four officers to testify again. The senior RCMP officers involved in the email exchange likely will have to testify as well. The e-mail, written on Nov. 5, 2007, was disclosed only this week by the federal Justice Department to commission counsel.

The late disclosure of this document has disrupted months of work. We’re shocked that the email wasn’t disclosed to the commission and participants months ago, and call upon the RCMP to provide the public with complete assurances that full disclosure has been made. The public has the right to know why the RCMP did not disclose the email until after the four officers testified.

Grace Pastine is the Litigation Director and is counsel for the BC Civil Liberties Association at the Braidwood Inquiry

The transcript of the email as read at the inquiry is below.
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Tags: Braidwood Inquiry, Death In Custody, RCMP, Robert Dziekanski, Taser
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Four of the RCMP officers under scrutiny at the public inquiry into the death of Robert Dziekanski have failed in their attempts to prevent retired judge Thomas Braidwood from releasing his report.  The officers alleged that Commissioner Braidwood did not have the authority to cast blame.

Arne Silverman, a judge of the B.C. Supreme Court, found that Justice Braidwood had treated the officers fairly during the proceedings and, according to the BC Public Inquiry Act, has the authority to make findings of misconduct.

Check out the article in the Vancouver Sun.

Tags: Braidwood Inquiry, Death In Custody, RCMP, Robert Dziekanski
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The four RCMP officers involved in the in-custody death of Robert Dziekanski are in BC Supreme Court in order to prevent Commissioner Braidwood from potentially making findings of professional misconduct.  Commissioner Braidwood has advised each of the officers of the allegations on which he will make a determination. For example, Gerry Rundel has been advised that the following will be assessed:

• When he arrived at Vancouver’s airport, whether Rundel failed to properly assess the situation and failed to react appropriately in confronting Dziekanski;
• Whether the notes in his police notebook and the statements he gave to homicide investigators misrepresented Dziekanski’s behaviour and what happened in an effort to justify the officers’ actions;
• Whether Rundel continued to misrepresent what happened when he testified at the inquiry; and,
• Whether, during his testimony, he offered “a self-serving and misleading” interpretation of his notes and statements.

Check out the CBC story for more details.

Update: 10.06.2009

Check out the court documents the RCMP filed.

Tags: Braidwood Inquiry, Death In Custody, RCMP, Robert Dziekanski
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Police psychologist Mike Webster today sent an open letter to the mother of Robert Dziekanski, offering what he says “is probably as close as you will come to a genuine apology from the RCMP.”   Dr. Webster had his contract work cancelled by the RCMP after openly criticising the force last year with regard to the in-custody death of Robert Dziekanski. Zofia Cisowski responded to the letter by stating “nobody so far exposed the truth about the RCMP as Dr. Webster did.”

The letter is printed below in its entirety, and the discussion of slash gloves is particularly interesting. Below are  a few of the more scathing criticisms Dr. Webster leveled at the RCMP:

An inept, insular and archaic group of RCMP executives has let the Force fall out of step with 21st Century policing.

The idea of intimidating people is entirely consistent with the RCMP management’s way of managing conflict not only with the public but also with its own membership.

[The RCMP executive] view themselves as somehow apart from the rest of us, an elite group whose safety is more important than that of the most unfortunate among us.

We have become the `enemy’ and they go to `war’ with us each day, rather than collaborating with us to form a cohesive and consistent approach to policing our communities.

Unfortunately, the long history and rich tradition of the Force manifests itself today as arrogance and defensiveness.

The RCMP is in need of significant transformational change in order to genuinely reconnect with the public and its own membership.

RCMP media spokespersons Cpl. Dale Carr and Sgt. Pierre Lemaitre will be testifying at the Braidwod Inquiry. The BCCLA filed a police complaint over public statements made by the two officers in the days following the in-custody death of Robert Dziekanski. The complaint alleges that the two RCMP officers misrepresented facts and engaged in character attacks against Robert Dziekanski and Paul Pritchard. The complaint also alleges that the RCMP attempted to suppress the video footage recorded by Mr. Pritchard.

The investigation of the complaint has already been completed, but the BCCLA has argued that the investigation is woefully inadequate and recently filed a Request for Review with the Commission for Public Complaints Against the RCMP. While we’re waiting to see if we can get an adequate investigation, let’s hope that Commissioner Braidwood can get some answers from the RCMP.

Check out the BCCLA original complaint, the investigation report, the request for review, and an article in the Vancouver Sun.

The BCCLA is represented by BCCLA Litigation Director Grace Pastine and BCCLA Articled Student Sara Dubinsky at the Braidwood Inquiry.

Tags: BCCLA Police Complaints, Braidwood Inquiry, Death In Custody, RCMP, Robert Dziekanski
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