I really wonder how many were actually there - note how we get a highly contrived photo of the demo that gives you absolutely no way to know what happened, or how many people attended ..
People CHEERED for Paul Pritchard for obviously having the grit to get his video back from the RCMP.
Rally calls for suspension of taser use
VANCOUVER — A man who shot a video of Polish immigrant Robert Dziekanski being zapped by an RCMP taser before he died received a hero's welcome at a memorial rally in Vancouver.
A crowd of over 1,000 people chanted “Thank you, Paul,” as Paul Pritchard spoke Saturday about how he fell asleep before boarding a connecting flight from San Francisco, where he'd waited five hours after a 12-hour trip from China.
He then got the last seat on another flight and ended up at Vancouver International Airport on the evening of Oct. 13, where he recorded the last moments of Mr. Dziekanski's life.
Mr. Pritchard told the crowd that despite any statements by the Mounties, he saw Mr. Dziekanski, 40, being jolted with a taser in the early-morning hours of Oct. 14.
A demonstrator attends a rally in memory of Robert Dziekanski in Vancouver on Saturday. (LYLE STAFFORD/REUTERS)
“I saw what happened with my own eyes,” Mr. Pritchard said. “I saw the life drain out of a man's face. I heard the blood-curdling screams.”
He said scenes from the “horrific and terrible and tragic event” he recorded on a video that has been seen around the world are forever burned in his brain.
Mr. Pritchard said he met Mr. Dziekanski's mother, Zofia Cisowski, before arriving at the rally.
“It was a meeting of few words and many tears,” he said. “There was a look in this woman's face, in her eyes, of emptiness.”
Mr. Pritchard said that although he's received tremendous support for fighting to get the video recording back from the RCMP and release it to the public, there has been some negative reaction.
“Some people have told me that I'm an embarrassment to Canada,” he said.
“But I'll tell you what, being there that night I'm embarrassed and I'm ashamed of what happened.”
Several people at the rally held banners reading “Charge RCMP with murder,” “Serve and protect: Do not kill, lie and cover up,” and “Stop the abuse of force.”
Speakers from the Polish community, the federal and provincial NDP and a civil rights group called for the suspension of police taser use until various investigations into Mr. Dziekanski's death have been concluded.
Many protesters carried flags bearing a white eagle, the national symbol of Poland, which also adorned hats and scarves, one of which was draped around Mr. Pritchard, who left the stage in tears after receiving flowers.
Organizers were also passing around donation cans in an attempt to raise $20,000 for Mr. Dziekanski's mother, partly so she could take her son's ashes to Poland.
Psychiatric nurse Tania Lukasiewicz said she often deals with people who are unstable but doesn't use any kind of force to subdue them.
Ms. Lukasiewicz called on the four Mounties who dealt with Mr. Dziekanski to be charged, for the RCMP to improve training and for free translation services to be available at Vancouver International Airport for non-English-speaking travellers.
Diem Franke, who helped organize the rally, said the Vancouver Airport Authority has agreed to either a plaque or a welcoming centre in memory of Mr. Dziekanski.
*snip*Earlier this week, Premier Gordon Campbell phoned Ms. Cisowski, to apologize for what happened to her son.
The B.C. government has also ordered a public inquiry into the matter.
On Monday, the Canada Border Services Agency, which has been criticized for its silence on the taser incident, will release an internal report outlining the actions it will take to better deal with immigration incidents.
Ms. Cisowski has said she spent more than six hours in the international arrivals lounge trying frantically to persuade airport officials to help her find her son, who didn't speak English and had never been to Canada.
She said workers in a Canada Border Services Agency office checked a computer but told her there was no sign of him. However, he was later processed as a landed immigrant.
The furor over Mr. Dziekanski's death has prompted several memorial services and plenty of questions about why no one helped a man who'd been wandering around the international arrivals hall for so long that he became panic-stricken and tried to barricade himself in the area. (See! I told ya! The truth will out!)
Last week, a memorial service for Mr. Dziekanski in Kamloops drew hundreds of people who heard he was a geography buff who'd sent postcards from every trip he went on.
A large crowd also showed up at a simultaneous candlelight vigil at Vancouver International Airport.
In a statement from RCMP Commissioner William Elliott, the force has said it remains behind the use of the taser but also agrees further research is needed into its impact on people suffering from a medical condition called excited delirium.
Some have speculated that was Mr. Dziekanski's state when police encountered him, although the video shows he had calmed down considerably from the minutes before where he was throwing small pieces of furniture at the glass wall in the airport.
 Philadelphia Inquirer | Rallies For Robert Dziekanski CKNW, Canada - VANCOUVER/CKNW(AM980) - Hundreds of people wearing red and white gathered outside the Vancouver Art Gallery to remember Robert Dziekanski, ... Tears and anger at rally for Tasered man BC man who shot video of Polish immigrant jolted with Taser gets ... BC man injured during altercation with police dies |
 Ottawa Citizen | Fourth Taser gun death in Canada: police AFP - In October, Robert Dziekanski, 40, died after being shocked repeatedly by policemen with a Taser gun only 60 seconds after they first approached him at the ... Taser use proliferating Stun-Guns are Safe: Taser International Taser Terror |
 CTV.ca | Dziekanski tributes still flowing in The Province, Canada - A week ago The Province set up an online condolence book at www.legacy.com for people to send condolences to the family of Robert Dziekanski. ... Polish TV crew in BC to probe Dziekanski's death ON CANOE.CA CALL FROM CAMPBELL Philadelphia Inquirer BC man who shot video of Polish immigrant jolted with Taser gets ... The Canadian Press - Over 1000 people chanted "Thank you, Paul," as Paul Pritchard spoke Saturday about how he fell asleep before boarding a connecting flight from San Francisco ... BC man hit by Taser, batons dies Tears and anger at rally for Tasered man Mourners demand answers |
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