Vol. 71/No. 48      December 24, 2007

A video taken by Paul Pritchard, who witnessed the killing, showed that Dziekanski was shot at least twice by 50,000-volt Tasers, then jumped on by three Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP). They held him face down with their knees on his chest and neck until he stopped breathing.

Dziekanski was attacked by the cops when he became agitated after being kept waiting 10 hours in the airport, unable to see his mother, who had arranged to meet him there. The video of the killing shows that Dziekanski neither resisted nor provoked police, contrary to cop claims. Seen around the world, the video has provoked outrage. The police initially tried to suppress the video given to them by Pritchard. They returned it only after he threatened court action.

The day of the rally, another man, 36-year-old Robert Knipstrom, was killed in Chilliwack, east of Vancouver. Cops attacked him with Tasers, batons, and pepper spray. In the past month two other men were killed by police Tasers in Quebec and Nova Scotia.

Rally speakers here, including Pritchard, noted that without his video the truth might never have been acknowledged by authorities.

“Police are supposed to serve and protect—not kill, lie, and cover it up,” Sigmunt Riddle of the Canadian Civil Rights Movement told the crowd. Tanya Lukasiewicz, a nurse and one of the rally organizers, said, “Charges need to be laid against the RCMP.”

A number of the demonstrators had themselves been attacked by cops. Kryzystof Kukulski, a 52-year-old painter, showed a Militant reporter a 2003 issue of the Vancouver Province. It contained stories about six cops who took three men to a secluded park and beat them, and about Kukulski’s attempt to sue police for beating and bloodying him in another incident.

More than half of those at the rally were of Polish descent. Many immigrants from other countries were also present.

Sharon Wall, a Native woman, carried a sign referring to police as “Legalized criminals with legal weapons.” She said a public inquiry recently began into the death of Frank Paul, a Native man who 10 years ago was dumped by cops in an alley “like garbage” and left to die.

The provincial government has announced a public inquiry into Dziekanski’s killing, after initially rejecting demands for such a probe.
 
 
Related articles:
Washington state rally protests cop harassment of immigrants
As immigration rises, UK rulers debate policy  
 
 
Front page (for this issue) | Home | Text-version home