VANCOUVER, B.C. – A public inquiry has heard that a friend of Robert Dziekanski’s mother told airport staff the man didn’t speak English and repeatedly asked for help to find him.
Rick Hutchinson is testifying at the public inquiry into Dziekanski’s death in October 2007, when the would-be Polish immigrant died after being stunned five times by an RCMP Taser.
Hutchinson drove Dziekanski’s mother, Zofia Cisowski, to the airport from Kamloops so she could meet her son.
Hutchinson says he and Cisowski waited eight hours at the airport for Dziekanski, who took hours to clear customs before his encounter with police.
Hutchinson says he approached staff at a tourism booth four or five times, told them they were waiting for somebody who didn’t speak English and asked for help to locate him.
But Hutchinson says he was told his only option was to sit in the international arrivals area and wait.
