Tragedy in YVR
Posted on November 15th, 2007 in World for the Week |
By now, most Vancouverites probably have heard about the taser death of Robert Dziekanski, a polish immigrant who was killed by the police in the Vancouver International Airport (YVR) early October. He was apparently stuck in customs for twelve hours while his mother, tragically enough, waited about 100 meters outside the secured area where he was wandering around. Robert didn’t speak English, and was most likely frustrated by the waiting process. He was shouting “help” in Polish but nobody could understand him (why didn’t anybody direct him to a translating line, the 24/7 service provided by YVR?!)
It draws resemblance to the movie The Terminal, except the ending here was not a happy one. From the tape released a few days ago, we can see that four RCMP officers walked in after Robert threw a computer in frustration. They zapped him two or three times until he fell to the ground, then they all got on top of him to handcuff the poor guy. One officer’s knee was on his neck it seems. A short while later, he lost conscious and died, all the while being captured on film.
I was absolutely disgusted with how the police acted. They definitely overreacted and used force excessively. Robert was agitated (who wouldn’t be, with travel plans boggled up like that in a foreign land… let’s see the RCMP remain calm and collected if we send them to Zimbabwe and have them stuck in customs for twelve hours), but he did not pose a serious threat to the other travelers. All they needed was a Polish-speaker and he’d be out of there in a flash. I think we can attribute part of his death to the language barrier, which breaks my heart because my family met the same obstacles a few years ago.
His mother Zofia saved money for seven years for Robert Dziekanski immigration. She had him come by Vancouver (then bus to Kamloops I suppose) because she wanted him to see how beautiful Canada is. Yet he died, painfully and publicly, with his mother a few hundred meters away waiting anxiously.
The Canadian government should be ashamed.
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I'm Crystal, a Canadian who thinks she can take on the world simply by getting up each morning. They call me the caffeinated IBer wandering on the Internet. 
15 Responses
It’s appalling. That’s all I can say.
Also - I think the police should stop using tazers for every little thing. Man yelling in polish? TAZER HIM, ZOMG! Give me a break. Is it just me, or have there been so many unneeded deaths as a result of excessive force from the RCMP? Disgusting.
This whole thing is especially appalling considering where it happened: VANCOUVER. You can throw a rock and hit three people who won’t be able to speak English to you.
The whole story is so heartbreaking. I feel so bad for the mother - imagine what she’s going through.
Wow, this is the first I’m learning about this. I second Chanel, I feel really bad for his mother. She should sue.
i couldn’t believe this when i first read it in the globe and mail… and this is when they wouldn’t release the video to the public and mother of the victim. i never really thought something like this could really happen here… in canada… in vancouver of all places! It makes me wonder what kind of training airport security guards go through? isn’t there a policy to obtain a translator of someone outside the family? i know it is in hospitals, so why not airports, the most international of all places???!!!
@ Chanel - I totally agree. I mean, there were four of them and one of him, I know some policemen are stupid but hello?! Do the math! The RCMP has really been grabbing the headlines in a negative way lately… this is just one of the few cases that gained publicity. It hurts that it happened so close to home!
@ Candy - If it wasn’t for public pressure, I don’t think they would have released the tape. The YVR has a 24/7 translating line with 150 languages available. However, to get there (there’s another youtube video talking about this), you first have to go to the “Greencoat Guides”, who are volunteers and have no idea what you’re talking about. They are then supposed to take you to customer service, who will connect you with the translator. However, the volunteers and customer service are only available before 6pm or something and on weekdays (which is stupid because there are at least 30 flights after office hours). Robert was there at midnight on the weekend. It just breaks my heart.
Ugh, this is so heartbreaking! You would think that here, in Canada, more measures for helping our multicultural visitors would be in place. Canada is very diverse, obviously, and especially in Vancouver. Are they trying to have us believe that out of all the people in the screening area, there wasn’t a one that understood Polish? I mean, he arrived from Poland, chances are there were a few Polish-Canadians taking the same flight.
This was on the news over here last night. There’s a big debate at the moment over whether NZ police ought to be allowed to use Tasers, so of course this added fuel to the fire.
I think it’s absolutely disgusting! What a horrible tragedy! My heart goes out to his mother and the rest of his family.
Btw, you’re a student, come see my latest blog and answer my question.
That is just terrible. It goes to show the kind of hospitality North America has. I feel very terrible for his mother. It’s bad enough all of these countries think so terribly of us over here and then things like this happen and it makes everyone look bad. It makes us look heartless. I can’t imagine how terribly afraid he must of been being in that Airport and not being able to express himself. So sad
Hey thanks for the comment and sorry about the late reply
Wow thats really sad. Police these days are soo over the top with their action its crazy. I mean here in england they shot dead an innocent guy beacuse they thought he posed a threat and was going to blow up a train before they correctly id’d him.
If someone just took the tiem to id the guy hed still be alive and the same goes the the guys at the airport. If they just TOK the time to get a translator hed might still be aive now. Its really disgusting they way some of them act just beacuse the have a lil bit of power.
Take care K.
Omg this is just disgusting how no one was able to help him. Someone should be held accountable, that poor woman.
I can’t watch the video because of slow internet, but I did hear about this. It’s amazing, and I feel like I read stories somewhat like this every day, about how people over react and simple solutions are overlooked, replaced by these hideous, nightmarish occurrences instead. It’s so terribly tragic.
I was a little surprised when I saw this, mostly because I just assumed it was the US.. and that is nothing new with them. But Canadian police? Ugh.. it’s a shame to see that this is spreading throughout the world
I heard about that
The only thing i didnt know was that the mother saved money for seven years! I guess there has been another tazer thing were someones fighting for their life.
And its so cool your in vancity! Lol. I live in the yukon (nerd)
That’s so terrible! I feel so bad for the mother. People have become to hasty these days, this whole thing could’ve been avoided but no, they didn’t think and look what happened! I hope they win the law suit, which they should!
Wow, when will ppl learn that excessive force shouldn’t be used in every situation? It should only be used as a last resort.
Oh, wow… this is just insane. So basically, they zapped him to death because he threw a computer? Overreacting, much? Also, what you explained about the translating line was just so confusing that it’s a wonder how anyone finds it :O