Braidwood Inquiry resumes bickering

after being derailed just prior to final summation in June by the sudden appearance of an email written on Nov. 5, 2007 in which Chief Supt. Dick Bent alluded to the four officers' having a plan to TASER™ Robert Dziekanski prior to arriving on the scene, in direct contradiction to their sworn testimony that they did not have such a plan.

There's lots of media on this so I'm not going over all of it, but a couple of the more obvious Cover Your Ass points are being under-reported here.

Constables Bill Bentley, Kwesi Millington, Gerry Rundel and Cpl. Monty Robinson, who all gave startling similar but - according to the video we've seen -clearly wrong accounts of the events, were permitted to work together for several weeks after the incident.

The email from Chief Supt. Dent to Assistant Commissioner Al Macintyre regarding his conversation with Supt. Wayne Rideout on the eve of the release of bystander Paul Pritchard's video, which showed Dziekanski being Tasered five times, being restrained and dying face down in handcuffs on the airport floor :

Media Strategy — Release of YVR video.
Al, spoke with Wayne Rideout today about our strategy for the release of the video. He had a couple of concerns. First, he didn't think we should be providing any explanation for what was transpiring but instead just say the Inquest will take evidence under oath etc. I went through the rationale and said we need to have an explanation otherwise our detractors will put their own spin.

...then a paragraph on who would be the best media point man to "do the narrative" in order that they not "lose the perception of independence", then :

Finally, spoke to Wayne and he indicated that the members did not articulate that they saw symptoms of excited delirium, but instead had discussed the response en route and decided that if he did not comply that they would go to CEW. He has asked investigators for a synopsis and should have it by noon tomorrow.

Dick

Rideout testified on Tuesday that Dent's interpretation of their conversation is "wrong" and his superior Dent, who is due to retire in two weeks, reluctantly admitted that might be possible.
Al Macintyre has said he never even received this email but as a week of his blackberried emails from Nov 1 to 8th has gone missing, this is impossible to verify.

The RCMP has belatedly released another 18,000 relevant documents since June but the inquiry is wrapping up with closing arguments scheduled to begin on Oct. 5 regardless.

Meanwhile, the break in proceedings caused by the sudden appearance of the not-terribly-explosive-after-all email gave the four RCMP officers time to file in Appeals Court seeking a "permanent injunction to prevent the commission from continuing any proceedings against them", while Taser Int is asking the B.C. Supreme Court to quash all 19 of Justice Braidwood's recommendations.

And suddenly, B.C.'s police chiefs and top RCMP officers, including Rideout who calls the current in house investigation system an "unwinnable image problem", are all over the media recommending a new independent office to investigate police, but most balk at the suggestion that such a body be comprised entirely of civilian investigators.

Too much CYA still going on here all round.

My confidence in the Braidwood Inquiry took a beating in June when Justice Braidwood held a presser in which he displayed a childlike thrill at learning all about tasers immediately followed by blaming the media for much of the public lack of trust in the RCMP.
We'll see.
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Braidwood Inquiry posts to date.
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RCMP challenge authority of Braidwood Inquiry yet again

Constables Kwesi Millington and Bill Bentley, two of the RCMP officers involved in the TASER™ death of Robert Dziekanski at YVR, are mounting yet another ludicrous and embarrassing court challenge to prevent the Braidwood Inquiry from finding against them, and officers Rundel and Robinson are expected to follow suit.

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After Justice Braidwood warned that his final report might - might - accuse them of tasering Robert Dziekanski five times when it was "not justified," of acting "inappropriately aggressively", and of giving "self-serving and misleading" testimony and "misrepresenting the facts" at the Braidwood Inquiry, RCMP lawyers took a constitutional challenge to the BC Supreme Court in June, arguing that as a provincial inquiry, the Braidwood Inquiry did not have the authority to rule against members of the federal RCMP.

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They lost that one. when the judge dismissed their application. To their credit, RCMP brass in BC appear to be cool to these court challenges.

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But now lawyers for Millington and Bentley are turning to the BC Court of Appeals to quash that BC Supreme Court ruling, mounting the same arguments about jurisdiction as before and seeking :

"a permanent injunction to prevent the commission from continuing any proceedings against Millington and Bentley or making any findings of misconduct until 60 days after the appeal court rules on the matter. No date has been set for the appeal court hearing."

60 days from an appeal court hearing that doesn't even have a date set yet would likely put it past the resumption of the Braidwood Inquiry in September. At that time Braidwood will be looking into an RCMP email - which surfaced on what was expected to be the Inquiry's final day - that alluded to the four officers' having a plan to TASER™ Dziekanski prior to arriving on the scene, contradicting their sworn testimony that they did not have such a plan.

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Running out the clock on inquiries of misconduct - it's an old RCMP tactic in BC and elsewhere in Canada.

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Mounties aim to block Braidwood Inquiry

The four RCMP officers who killed Robert Dziekanski with a TASER™ are asking the B.C. Supreme Court to prevent the Braidwood Inquiry from "making findings of misconduct against them" on the grounds "that a provincial inquiry doesn't have the power to make findings against federal police officers".

Justice Thomas Braidwood has warned that he may consider finding that the four RCMP "acted improperly and then tried to cover up their actions" in his final report.
The RCMP are hoping to use the excuse that they are a federal department not accountable to BC to pre-empt the BC Crown from possibly reopening their case. Not that there's been any indication that that's likely.

So far, Constables Kwesi Millington, Bill Bentley, Gerry Rundel and Corporal Monty Robinson have been exonerated by :

• the Criminal Justice Branch of BC, which, despite having watched the same Paul Pritchard video the rest of us saw, determined the officers were "acting lawfully and responded with reasonable force".
• the Integrated Homicide Investigation Team, who also watched the vid and were so certain no charges would be laid that they didn't even bother to warn the officers first of their rights under the Charter that anything they said could be held in evidence against them or that they had a right to have their lawyers present.
• the federal Department of Justice, which advised the Mounties they were not legally required to attend the Braidwood Inquiry anyway.

Additionally, the official federal RCMP watchdog Paul Kennedy has already said he is not given sufficient access to RCMP files to enable him to perform his job.

For the RCMP's lawyers to ask the BC Supreme Court to prevent a BC public inquiry from delivering on its purpose ... well that smells like shear flopsweat desperation.
But who is left who has the will to hold the renegade officers of this federal paramilitary organization to account?
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Update : RCMP distances itself from officers' lawsuit over Dziekanski inquiry

Sgt. Tim Shields, the RCMP's official spokesman in B.C. :
"The position of the RCMP is that the RCMP will co-operate fully with the inquiry and is also recognizing the jurisdiction of the inquiry as having authority.
These lawyers are representing the four officers; they're not representing the RCMP."
While Shields acknowledged the lawyers are paid for by taxpayers, he said the force itself has no power to stop them from contradicting RCMP policy.

UPDATE : BC Supreme Court rules Taser inquiry can find Mounties at fault

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Braidwood Inquiry : Blaming the victim

RCMP lawyers steered their defence straight into the toilet yesterday as they questioned a friend and neighbour of Robert Dziekanski in Poland via video link.

Stating their purpose was to "explain Dziekanski's behavior at the airport", lawyers for Constables Bill Bentley and Kwesi Millington began with questions about whether Dziekanski drank or had a history of violence but then went on to ask whether his relationship with his ex-girlfriend was toxic and hey, how about that time he was busted for theft as a juvenile?
Iwona Kosowska, Dziekanski's friend of 20 years, was having none of it :

"You guys made the mistake and now you want to turn everything around. For me, my friend just got killed in front of my eyes."

Millington's lawyer Ravi Hira persevered, muttering something about jail time, despite twice being over-ruled by Justice Braidwood to applause from the public gallery, until Kosowska had had enough :

"Can we stop this? You are trying to make a bad person out of him so you can kill a bad person, not a good person."

Well said, Ms Kosowska.
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