Captioning the Braidwood Inquiry

Someone at the Calgary Herald slipped a little creative captioning into their gallery of 18 news photos from the Braidwood Inquiry. Easily missed among the other serious pants photos and captions are the following :
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"Exhibit A : The Apsco stapler is 7 inches in length when closed and 13 inches when opened. It does not, as has been suggested, come with kevlar armour, laser sighting, and a semi-automatic. "





"RCMP constable Kwesi Millington testifies at the Braidwood Inquiry. Millington was so frightened of the stapler on display in the court that he chose to give video testimony from a nearby broom closet."



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Braidwood Inquiry - The return of the Staples Defence

In what is now a familiar and depressing story, RCMP Cpl. Monty Robinson joined the previous officers in testifying today that he "saw a couple of staples come out" of the dreaded and terrifying stapler that Robert Dziekanski was clutching moments before he was zapped five times and died on the floor of the Vancouver airport in 2007.

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In his initial statement to the Integrated Homicide Investigation Team, Robinson had said that Dziekanski was "swinging the stapler up high...in an attempt to hit us."

Well, so much for that.

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Cpl. Robinson also repeated the fiction, in spite of evidence shown to the contrary on the Pritchard video, that Dziekanski failed to go down on the first TASER™ shot - hence his instructions to "Hit him again! Hit him again!". This command was actually given as Dziekanski, in the words of Justice Thomas Braidwood, "was already on the ground howling with his legs in the air."

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Perhaps most chilling today was Robinson's excuse for ignoring the fact that after being zapped five times and held down by Robinson's knee on his back with his hands handcuffed behind his back, Dziekanski was turning blue :

"I assumed it was bruising," he said.

Live coverage of the inquiry will resume tomorrow at CBC .

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Braidwood Inquiry : A second RCMP officer recants

RCMP Const. Bill Bentley in October 2007, prior to the public release of Paul Pritchard's video of Robert Dziekanski's death :

"Robert Dziekanski, 40, had grabbed a stapler 'and came at the police screaming' during the incident."

Const. Bill Bentley yesterday at the Braidwood Inquiry, after being walked through Paul Pritchard's video :

"If we didn’t have the video, would your evidence be today that Mr. Dziekanski grabbed the stapler and ran toward you screaming?” commission counsel Patrick McGowan asked.
“I don’t know,” Bentley replied, prompting derisive laughter from several people in the public gallery."

Now Bentley says : "Dziekanski "actually appeared calm and cooperative and wasn't doing anything as the officers approached."

That's quite the switch, Const. Bentley.

Vancouver Sun : "Lawyer David Butcher, representing Bentley, asked that official inquiry transcripts, video, audiotapes and exhibits at the inquiry should not be released without a court order. It is believed Poland is considering charges against the officers. The request will be ruled on later."

Transcript of RCMP testimony is still not up at the Braidwood Inquiry site yet but in the past it has usually lagged by several days.
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