Robert Dziekanski would still be alive if RCMP hadn’t Tasered him at Vancouver International Airport, the man’s mother told a public forum on conducted energy weapons yesterday.
“I know that my son would not have died if he hadn’t been Tasered,” a tearful Zofia Cisowski told the Braidwood Inquiry in Vancouver.
The two-part inquiry, headed by former B.C. Supreme Court judge Thomas Braidwood, was called after Dziekanski’s death in October.
The first part will examine the use of Tasers by municipal police and sheriffs. The second will examine the circumstances around the death of the 40-year-old Polish immigrant.
Cisowski, who lives in Kamloops, spoke at the inquiry “so another mother will not have to experience the pain and suffering that I have.”
Her lawyer, Walter Kosteckyj, said Cisowski suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder and an intense sense of guilt over what happened.
“I very much miss him,” she said outside the inquiry yesterday. “Even now, I cry if I see his picture. I kiss his picture every day.”
Kosteckyj, a former RCMP officer, told the inquiry that there should be a moratorium on the use of Tasers until concerns over safety, proper training and reporting have been answered.
