After a Death, Use of Taser in Canada Is Debated
By IAN AUSTEN

OTTAWA, Nov. 15 — A video recording showing an emotionally wrought immigrant dying after being hit with a police Taser at an airport last month has touched off a fierce debate in Canada on police actions in the case and the rules governing use of the weapon.

The 10-minute recording, which was widely broadcast Wednesday night, was made last month by another passenger and initially seized by the police. It shows a Polish immigrant, Robert Dziekanski, being hit just 46 seconds after four members of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police arrived to subdue him at the airport in Vancouver, British Columbia. The recording also supports accounts from witnesses who said the police officers did not appear to be in danger when the weapon was fired at least twice.

Mr. Dziekanski was the 18th person to die since July 2003 after being hit by a Taser in Canada, a country where the weapons may be owned only by police forces. Amnesty International estimates that in the United States, a country with roughly nine times the population of Canada, 280 people have died after being struck by police Tasers since 2001. Tasers can also be used by civilians in many states.

Alex Neve, the secretary general of Amnesty International in Canada, which has called for a suspension of Taser use, said, “There is a very good likelihood that the Taser was used well before the situation called for it.”

The federal minister for public safety, Stockwell Day, said in Parliament on Wednesday that he had ordered a review of the police use of Tasers in Canada shortly after Mr. Dziekanski’s death.

Mr. Dziekanski, a 40-year-old construction worker, arrived in Vancouver on Oct. 14 to begin a new life with his mother. After a 10-hour delay caused by immigration processing, Mr. Dziekanski became upset when he could not find his mother, Zofia Cisowski, who waited several hours before returning to her home in Kamloops, British Columbia, under the mistaken impression that her son had not arrived in Canada.

Unable to speak English, Mr. Dziekanski became distressed and began shouting in Polish, moving furniture around, shoving a computer off a desk in an arrival area and, at one point, throwing a chair. His actions soon attracted the attention of other passengers and security officials.

The recording shows that when airport security officials first appeared, passengers could be heard shouting to them that Mr. Dziekanski did not understand English.

Moments later, four members of the Mounties arrive in the waiting area wearing bulletproof vests. Mr. Dziekanski repeatedly shouted either the Polish word for “help” or “police,” which sound similar, before walking away with his arms raised in the air. There was a brief conversation followed by a loud sound, apparently a Taser shot, and Mr. Dziekanski fell to the ground screaming in pain.

The recording captured what appeared to be a second Taser shot as three officers piled onto Mr. Dziekanski to subdue him. One minute and eight seconds after the police arrived, Mr. Dziekanski appeared to have stopped moving, and the recording ended shortly afterward.

An autopsy showed no evidence of alcohol or drugs in his system, but was unable to determine a cause of death.

The Polish government has sent two lawyers to Vancouver to investigate the death and raised the issue with Canadian officials and diplomats. After watching the recording, Piotr Ogrodzinski, the Polish ambassador to Canada, said he found the use of a Taser on Mr. Dziekanski to be excessive.

“He was desperately in search of assistance or help,” Mr. Ogrodzinski said. “He did break a computer and throw a stool, but there was no gesture suggesting that he intended to fight anybody. Here was a very helpless person, a disoriented person.”

When the police seized the recording at the airport from Paul Pritchard, who was returning home to Victoria, British Columbia, they characterized it as an important piece of evidence. Mr. Pritchard recovered the recording after threatening legal action and it was released it to the news media late Wednesday.

A spokesman for the Mounties, Cpl. Dale Carr, said, “It’s just one piece of evidence, one person’s view.”

A coroner’s inquest, which will not determine legal fault, has been ordered for the case. Some critics of the police are calling for criminal charges against the police officers.

The case is being reviewed by an independent commission that investigates complaints about the Mounties.