Constabulary Duties

On October 13, 2007, Mr. Robert Dziekański, a Polish immigrant seeking to join his mother in Canada, arrived at the Vancouver International Airport. What transpired over the next several hours is a tale of horrific blundering and brutality resulting in the death of Mr. Dziekański. Overwhelmed by four heavily armed RCMP officers, Dziekański received the short, sharp shock of two discharges from a conducted energy device (a.k.a. Taser) in a Kafkaesque scene captured by video on a bystander’s cell phone. The Canadian public has always been alert to police activities when they involve bungled investigations or when officers have erred, or appear to have erred, in ways that lead to perceptions of police misconduct, brutality or corruption. However, the calamity of Dziekański’s death and the excessive violence that appeared to be in operation in this instance created sustained public indignation and revulsion that has rarely been seen in this country.

What happened to...