The question is why, following a violent death at an airport, the spokesman was told what he was.
If an ordinary citizen tells an RCMP officer falsehoods about a violent death the consequences are normally more serious than having to say 'oops, my bad'.
What makes it even more serious is that the 'corrections' were made only after a video, which the RCMP tried to suppress, was made public showing the truth of what happened.
RCMP 'sorry' for errors in taser briefings
JANE ARMSTRONG
Globe and Mail Update Wed, 22 Apr 2009 05:10 EDT VANCOUVER —
The RCMP has admitted that it gave wrong information to the public about the circumstances of Polish immigrant Robert Dziekanski's death. But the force has denied that it lied or suppressed information about the disturbing circumstances of Mr. Dziekanski's death.
"We found that there was some information that was provided and made public that was not accurate," RCMP Sergeant Tim Shields told reporters during an impromptu briefing outside the Braidwood inquiry, which is probing Mr. Dziekanski's death.
"For those inaccuracies, we apologize and we are sorry," Sgt. Shields said. No sooner was the apology uttered when the Mounties' media spokesman was besieged with questions about why the erroneous information was ever put out. The Mounties have faced criticism over their handling of Mr. Dziekanski's October, 2007, death.
The Polish man died after he was stunned by a police taser near the international arrivals lounge at Vancouver's airport. Yesterday's apology was delivered on the same day that the RCMP media spokesman who handled the Dziekanski file in October, 2007, began his testimony.
Sgt. Pierre Lemaitre told the inquiry that the errors were honest mistakes and he was simply relaying information provided by another Mountie. Sgt. Lemaitre, who has been with the RCMP more than 20 years, said he never intended to mislead reporters.
The 40-year-old Polish man died after spending 21 hours flying from Poland to Canada, and then another 10 hours lost in the airport. He spoke no English and police were summoned when he began tossing furniture and banging on windows. Officers tackled and tasered the man. He died of cardiac arrest. Sgt. Lemaitre yesterday testified that he was summoned in the middle of the night to the RCMP detachment in Richmond, B.C.
He was told that an incident with international ramifications had occurred and he was needed because he was bilingual. Sgt. Lemaitre arrived at the police station at 6:30 a.m., was briefed by a fellow Mountie and watched a portion of a bystander's video. But many details Sgt. Lemaitre released to the media were wrong. He repeated those errors in interviews over the next couple of days.
For example, in a CTV interview shown to the inquiry, Sgt. Lemaitre told interviewers that Mr. Dziekanski did not respond to the first jolt and that he struggled and fought even while on the ground. Mr. Dziekanski, he said, was growing increasingly combative.
James Morton
1100-5255 Yonge Street
Toronto, Ontario
M2N 6P4
416 225 2777
4 comments:
On the news today there was a segment on CBC Newsworld where LeMaitre said he had seen the video before he made his PR announcement. So he knew he was lying & admitted it in court.
WOW!!! I did not know that -- I watched the movie "Z" again recently and this reminds me of it
Yes, Jim, penlan is correct. The question I have is why did the RCMP Commissioner, Bill Elliott, allow the force to mislead the Canadian public for so long? In today's Toronto Star, Elliott seems to be working overtime to distance himself with the Dziekanski incident even claiming he's never discussed it with RCMP members.
Jim, Dr. Dawg sent me a link to a CBC story from last July that implicates Commissioner Elliott directly in all this:
"Dziekanski died after being zapped with a stun gun at the Vancouver International Airport on Oct. 14, 2007, by RCMP officers who were called to help deal with the Polish immigrant, who apparently became agitated from spending 10 hours at the airport. From that day, RCMP e-mail exchanges obtained by access to information requests suggest the force moved quickly to create a strategy.
"The strategy involved all answers being vetted in Ottawa, including ones described by RCMP Commissioner William Elliott as "tough or dirty questions" from the media."
The commish may be trying to put as much distance as possible between himself and the controversy but the CBC item, based on his own e-mails, shows that he sprang into life and reverted from Commissioner to the veteran Tory functionary he'd been before he was appointed.
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