A video released on Wednesday shows the dramatic last moments of a Polish immigrant who died after police shocked him with a Taser and restrained him at Vancouver's airport last month.
Robert Dziekanski, 40, of Pieszyce, Poland, was shocked and restrained by police on Oct. 14 after going on a rampage out of frustration for waiting 10 hours for his mother. He spoke no English and died minutes later while being attended by a medical team.
The incident is under investigation by local police, by Canada's national police complaints commission and by an independent coroner's service. The Polish embassy has filed a formal diplomatic note asking Canada for full disclosure of the incident.
Walter Kosteckyj, the victim's family lawyer, said he was disturbed by the footage because Dziekanski was not violent. "I was expecting to see a confrontation" with police, he said.
The video of Dziekanski's death was released to the media by Paul Pritchard, a Canadian traveler who was at the airport at the time of the incident.
Police had originally taken the recording from Pritchard promising to give it back, but then refused to return it until after Pritchard filed a lawsuit in court.
In the video Dziekanski appears frightened, sweating and exhausted, and speaks to himself in Polish. Looking agitated, he paces back and forth through an automatic door, which he jams open with chairs and a table.
At one point, he takes a computer off a counter and throws it to the ground as airport security guards stand close by.
"He's speaking Russian ... we need a Russian interpreter," one guard is heard saying in the video.
Four policemen then walk into view. One says, "How are you sir," as they all surround Dziekanski, who appears to turn his back on them, trying to move away.
At that point, a policeman hits Dziekanski with a Taser, making him scream. The immigrant falls, then writhes on the ground with his knees pulled to his chest as all four police officers pin him down.
Seconds later, Dziekanski is seen lying still.
The British Columbia Civil Liberties Association said that it has filed two formal complaints against the Royal Canadian Mounted Police "for misrepresenting the facts of Robert Dziekanski's death and unreasonably seizing and actively suppressing a video recording of the incident."
Dziekanski, a construction worker who wanted to emigrate to Canada to join his mother lives, boarded a plane for the first time in his life in Frankfurt, Germany, Kosteckyj said.
Because of a mixup, he waited for 10 hours for his mother in a secure area of the airport, while she waited on the other side of a wall in the public area, the family lawyer said.
No airport, customs or security employees at the airport apparently tried to help either of them, he added.
Eventually Dziekanski found his way into the public area, but his mother had already left and Dziekanski apparently panicked, the lawyer said.
Australians were downloading virtual private networks (VPNs) in droves, while one of the world’s largest porn distributors said it was blocking users from its platforms as the country yesterday rolled out sweeping online age restriction. Australia in December became the first country to impose a nationwide ban on teenagers using social media. A separate law now requires artificial intelligence (AI)-powered chatbot services to keep certain content — including pornography, extreme violence and self-harm and eating disorder material — from minors or face fines of up to A$49.5 million (US$34.6 million). The country also joined Britain, France and dozens of US states requiring
Hungarian authorities temporarily detained seven Ukrainian citizens and seized two armored cars carrying tens of millions of euros in cash across Hungary on suspicion of money laundering, officials said on Friday. The Ukrainians were released on Friday, following their detention on Thursday, but Hungarian officials held onto the cash, prompting Ukraine to accuse Hungary’s Russia-friendly government of illegally seizing the money. “We will not tolerate this state banditism,” Ukrainian Minister of Foreign Affairs Andrii Sybiha said. The seven detained Ukrainians were employees of the Ukrainian state-owned Oschadbank, who were traveling in the two armored cars that were carrying the money between Austria and
Kosovar President Vjosa Osmani on Friday after dissolving the Kosovar parliament said a snap election should be held as soon as possible to avoid another prolonged political crisis in the Balkan country at a time of global turmoil. Osmani said it is important for Kosovo to wrap up the upcoming election process and form functional institutions for political stability as the war rages in the Middle East. “Precisely because the geopolitical situation is that complex, it is important to finish this electoral process which is coming up,” she said. “It is very hard now to imagine what will happen next.” Kosovo, which declared
MORE BANS: Australia last year required sites to remove accounts held by under-16s, with a few countries pushing for similar action at an EU level and India considering its own ban Indonesia on Friday said it would ban social media access for children under 16, citing threats from online pornography, cyberbullying, online fraud and Internet addiction. “Accounts belonging to children under 16 on high-risk platforms will start to be deactivated, beginning with YouTube, TikTok, Facebook, Instagram, Threads, X, Bigo Live and Roblox,” Indonesian Minister of Communications and Digital Meutya Hafid said. “The government is stepping in so that parents no longer have to fight alone against the giants of the algorithm. Implementation will begin on March 28, 2026,” she said. The social media ban would be introduced in stages “until all platforms fulfill their
RSS