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From CBC.ca --
RCMP officers involved in the Taser-related death of Robert Dziekanski were also affected by the tragic incident and in need of support, B.C. Premier Gordon Campbell said Friday.
Campbell made the comments a day after CBC News published internal RCMP e-mails that indicated the premier was "highly complimentary" of the police force, despite the fact Dziekanski's death was still under investigation.
"Our police officers are also people. We ask them to put themselves in harm's way every day, and certainly the tragedy of the death shook the family right to the core, and it's something that we all wish had never happened," Campbell said from Quebec City Friday, where he was attending a premier's meeting.
"I think it's easy to forget the fact that those four police officers are also wishing that it never happened."
Zofia Cisowski, mother of Robert Dziekanski (in picture), wipes her eyes during a news conference in Vancouver last October. Dziekanski, of Poland, died after Mounties shot him with a Taser stun gun at the Vancouver airport. Dziekanski, of Poland, died after Mounties shot him with a Taser stun gun at the Vancouver airport.
Dziekanski, a Polish immigrant who did not speak English, died after being shot with a Taser stun gun at the Vancouver International Airport last October by RCMP officers called to help deal with the man, who had apparently become agitated after spending 10 hours there.
An e-mail written by Gary Bass, the RCMP deputy commissioner for the Pacific region, on Nov. 24 indicated that Campbell was "highly complimentary" of the police force despite the fact Dziekanski's death on Oct. 14 was still under investigation.
"I just ran into our premier at the airport and we had a great 20-minute discussion on this issue generally.… He was highly complimentary of the force, disappointed over the degree of criticism and wants to support the members involved somehow," Bass wrote in an e-mail addressed to RCMP Commissioner William Elliott and Bill Sweeney, a deputy commissioner and special adviser to the commissioner.
"He [Campbell] asked me to think about what he could do in this regard. … He supports the continued use of Taser and any other tools which support and protect our members.
"He said the inquiry will not be a negative attack on the force but a focused examination of all the issues," Bass wrote.
The B.C. Taser inquiry, headed by retired B.C. Court of Appeal justice Thomas Braidwood, was called after Dziekanski's death. It is one of a number of probes into the use of stun guns by police forces that were launched after the death, including an internal investigation by the RCMP and an investigation by the RCMP public complaints commissioner.
Campbell said Friday the public inquiry will consider how to ensure a similar event never happens again.
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