Vancouver airport communications dysfunctional, lawyer says

The lawyer representing the family of a man who died after being stunned with a Taser at Vancouver International Airport says the communications systems at the airport are dysfunctional and inadequate.

Walter Kosteckyj is representing Zofia Cisowski, the mother of 40-year-old Polish immigrant Robert Dziekanski, who died on Oct. 14 four minutes after being shocked by a Taser gun by RCMP.

Kosteckyj says Dziekanski's mother spent several hours at the airport, asking several officials at several of the airport's information booths to help her find her son, but her attempts to get help were unsuccessful.

He said staff at the booths don't have the capacity tocommunicate with staff in other areas of the airport or to page the public in secure areas.

"They have no capacity for being able to communicate and if they do have the capacity, they don't use it to communicate to Immigration or the secure areas," said Kosteckyj. "In fact, their PA systems don't even work into the secure area."

Dziekanski arrived at the airport on the afternoon of Oct. 13 on a flight from Germany, but never emerged from customs at the international arrivals area to meet his mother.

Cisowski returned to Kamloops that night, after being told her son wasn't at the airport.

Then around 1:30 a.m., police were called to the airport customsareaafter Dziekanskiwas spottedpounding on windows and throwing chairs and computer equipment. Police said Dziekanski refused to calm down and he was shocked twice with a Taser.

He died four minutes later.The cause of death has not yet been determined.

Witness have told CBC News that before he was shocked, Dziekanski was clearly distressed and was calling for police in Polish, and thatfive police officers shot him four times with Tasers seconds after they arrived.

Neither police nor airport officials have said what Dziekanski was doing between the time his flight arrived and his death, but his mother has said he did not speak English, and had no experience with international travel or large airports.

Taser devices are controversial because of the dozen North American deaths resulting from their use.

Police are investigating Dziekanski's death and a toxicology report is underway to determine whether there were drugs in the man's system.