RCMP release heavily censored incident report about Dziekanski

The RCMP released an incident report about Robert Dziekanski who died at Vancouver International Airport last October, but much of the kind of information routinely released in other cases was censored.

The name and rank of the officer who fired the stun gun, his supervisor's name, details about the duration of the firing and the number of times the weapon was used in stun mode were omitted from the report obtained under the Access to Information Act by CBC News and the Canadian Press.

Though Dziekanski's name has been struck from the four-page report, it is readily identifiable as his case, listing basic details familiar to those who watched an amateur video of the RCMP arriving on the scene and shortly thereafter firing a Taser at him.  

A written summary of the incident was blanked out along with assessments as to whether use of the Taser helped the RCMP either "avoid use of lethal force" or "avoid injuries to subject or police."

A passage about whether Dziekanski was armed or not has also been excised. One witness said he was waving a stapler at police.

In the widely viewed video, it appeared that Dziekanski was shocked at least twice last Oct. 14. After arriving on an overseas flight, he wandered the airport for six hours in a secure area controlled by the Canada Border Services Agency, unable to effectively communicate with anyone because he was Polish and spoke limited English.

In a letter accompanying the report, the RCMP said it invoked exemptions under the Access to Information Act to protect the privacy of the person stunned and to guard confidences about the force's investigations and weapons.

Ujjal Dosanjh, the Liberals' public safety critic and a former B.C. attorney general, said the Mounties should make more information available to the public. 

"I don't see any reason why there should be an impediment to releasing information as to how many times Mr. Dziekanski was stunned," he said. "Why would that be a problem unless that was a fact in dispute?"

The report stated that the RCMP officer issued the standard verbal warning, "Police, stop or you will be hit with 50,000 volts of electricity." But it doesn't state that the officers had just been told that Dziekanski, a Polish immigrant, didn't speak English.

A public inquiry into the use of Tasers and into Dziekanski's death is under way in British Columbia. On Monday, Taser International Inc. chairman and co-founder Thomas Smith and Dosanjh are both expected to testify.