Reinvestigate Robert Dziekanski’s death, petitioners are demanding.

Thousands are supporting a call to reinvestigate the death of Robert Dziekanski.

As of early October, 4,434 people around the world had signed an on-line petition urging Premier Gordon Campbell and Attorney General Mike de Jong to name an independent special prosecutor. This person would review Crown counsel’s decision not to charge the four RCMP officers who confronted Dziekanski at the Vancouver International Airport on October 14, 2007.

The newly arrived Polish immigrant died after being repeatedly shot with a Taser.

Zygmunt Riddle Przetakiewicz, spokesperson for the Canadian Civil Rights Movement, told the Georgia Straight that he helped launch the petition last March. Przetakiewicz said that he and other supporters of Dziekanski’s mother, Zofia Cisowski, are in close contact with the Ministry of Attorney General.

However, the lawyer representing Kwesi Millington, the RCMP constable who tasered Dziekanski, countered that Crown counsel had thoroughly reviewed the matter and found no evidence to warrant laying charges. “Charges have not been laid—simple as that,” Ravi Hira told the Straight.

Hira also pointed out that the appointment of a special prosecutor in this case is inconsistent with the Crown Counsel Act. The law authorizes B.C.’s assistant deputy attorney general to appoint a lawyer from the private bar as a special prosecutor when there is a perceived or real improper influence on Crown counsel. “There is no conflict here requiring a special prosecutor,” Hira noted.

The B.C. Civil Liberties Association is also pushing for an independent prosecutor to reconsider whether criminal charges could be laid. “Clearly, the public has a lot of concerns about whether justice was done in this case,” BCCLA litigation director Grace Pastine told the Straight. “And we think the appointment of a special prosecutor would reassure the public that an independent and thorough review of the officers’ conduct was done.”

Pastine was one of several lawyers who appeared before the two commissions of inquiry headed by retired Court of Appeal judge Thomas Braidwood following the death of Dziekanski. The first inquiry involved a review of the use of Tasers, and the second focused on the circumstances that led to the demise of the 40-year-old Polish immigrant. Braidwood started hearing closing arguments on October 5 in connection with the fatal airport incident.

Lawyer Walter Kosteckyj represents Dziekanski’s mother, and he believes that the evidence heard at the Braidwood inquiry warrants a reopening of the case by Crown counsel. “No one ever investigated why the police officers, in their statements, gave evidence which was different from what was in the tape,” Kosteckyj told the Straight, referring to an amateur video that captured Dziekanski’s encounter with the RCMP officers.

RCMP officers previously told investigators that Dziekanski didn’t fall after he was first shot with a Taser, and that he had to be wrestled to the ground. The video showed that the man was already on the ground when he was tasered three more times while officers were on top of him.

The Mounties also claimed that Dziekanski was wildly swinging an office stapler, and posed a threat to their safety. The video suggested that he didn’t wield the stapler to strike the officers, who were wearing bulletproof vests. In deciding not to lay charges, the Crown determined that the Mounties used reasonable force.

In July, Braidwood released a report stating that Tasers can kill and should be used sparingly by law enforcers. The American manufacturer, Taser International Inc., responded by filing an application in B.C. Supreme Court challenging Braidwood’s findings and recommendations.

Lawyers for two of the RCMP officers have also questioned Braidwood’s jurisdiction to make findings of misconduct. They lost in B.C. Supreme Court and have sought to have the ruling overturned in the B.C. Court of Appeal.

Braidwood commission counsel Art Vertlieb expects a report on Dziekanski’s death in the next few months.

Vertlieb doesn’t have a definite answer on whether the pending Court of Appeal case involving Braidwood’s authority could prevent the former judge from potentially finding fault in the actions of the RCMP officers. “It’s a good question,” Vertlieb told the Straight. “I’m not sure.”