Most British Columbians know that their government has very little in common with Iran's.

There is no supreme religious leader in B.C. who oversees the judiciary. People can run for the B.C. legislature without being vetted for their religious views.

However, in the area of in-custody deaths, there are some troubling similarities.

With the world watching the videotaped tasering and death of Robert Dziekanski at the Vancouver International Airport, this could become a bigger issue.

Consider the case of Zahra Kazemi, the Iranian-Canadian photojournalist who was raped and bludgeoned in an Iranian prison in 2003. Like Dziekanski, she travelled to another country to visit her mother.

The Iranian authorities initially lied about the circumstances of her death. Here in B.C. RCMP claimed there were three officers (there were four on the videotape) and that Dziekanski was resisting arrest. The tape suggested otherwise.

An intelligence agent was charged in the Kazemi killing, and was acquitted in 2004. He was acquitted again in 2005 following an appeal.

Here in B.C., police officers are almost never convicted of anything in connection with in-custody deaths. The coroners' service, which is legally obligated to investigate these deaths, is headed by a former RCMP superintendent who has a history of not criticizing police or the use of tasers.

A former Iranian physician revealed in 2005 that he examined Kazemi's corpse, and it showed obvious signs of torture and rape. Kazemi's son Stephen Hachemi, has tried to take his mother's death to the International Court of Justice in The Hague.

If the investigation and outcome of Dziekanski's death follow the usual pattern in B.C., don't be surprised if his mother tries a similar tactic in the future.

Because right now, all she's got is cops investigating cops. And there's a former RCMP superintendent overseeing the coroners' service that will look into her son's death at the hands of the Mounties, who were less than candid about the circumstances leading up to the man's death.

In light of this, after all the hearings and all the legal bills, no one should be surprised if the B.C. legal system delivers Iranian-style justice in the death of Robert Dziekanski.

For anything else to happen -- such as a critical evaluation of the role of senior Mounties, the provincial government, or the coroners' service -- defies common sense in light of recent B.C. history.