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| Taser death inquiry exposes flawed system |
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| Canada Line construction drives entrepreneur to death's door |
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March 10 Update:
Here is the touching song by Kendel Carson and Chip Taylor called "I Don't Want to Live on a Street":
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As the Braidwood Commission of Inquiry into the death of Robert Dziekanski plods along, one thing should be apparent to the most casual observer; when the RCMP investigates itself, the interests of justice are not well-served.
Strip away the obfuscation created by a couple of dozen lawyers and their well-rehearsed clients, and the basic facts are now pretty clear. Four burly, well-armed male members of Canada's national police force confronted a confused, weary, disoriented, unarmed immigrant and immediately shot him repeatedly with the "less than lethal" Taser. He expired as the RCMP stood around waiting for medical attention to arrive. Incidentally, these basic facts do not resemble the self-serving description that RCMP media spokesperson Pierre Lemaitre gave the public after the event, and before bystander Paul Pritchard's video surfaced.
Were it not for the amateur video, the RCMP would have successfully covered up the fatality, like so many others, and there would have been no multimillion dollar public inquiry into the affair. Sure, this inquiry will have a predictable result; the Commissioner will be urged to put himself in the police officers' shoes - they didn't know how much of a threat they were facing, Dziekanski was non-compliant and combative, they followed their training, blah, blah, blah -and there may be some recommendations about better airport services, better communication, better police training etc., but hopefully the public will see the single biggest issue.
Our criminal justice system is biased in favour of police officers. They get breaks and benefits that no other civilians receive. When they make serious mistakes resulting in a civilian death, their colleagues close ranks around them and ensure that they will not face the accountability that the law demands of the rest of us.
We need a new system and we need it now, before the next unfortunate person, like Robert Dziekanski, Ian Bush or Kevin St. Arnaud, is killed by the RCMP in this province. We need to have immediate independent investigations performed by a civilian investigative team that reports to an independent prosecutor. This isn't rocket science, but the powerful police lobby will fight these necessary changes tooth and nail.
'Pro-business' provincial government refuses to provide just compensation
Geoff Olson, Vancouver Courier
Published: Friday, February 06, 2009
For many Vancouver retailers, the Canada Line might as well have been a neutron bomb. Stores were left standing during construction, but customers vapourized. As I wrote last week, Mark Kenna and Alex Barker experienced the fallout firsthand from the transit project, losing control of their retail gift business Obsessions. The company is now filing for bankruptcy.
"We've struggled with debt and interest we normally wouldn't have had in the course of this business because of the Canada Line, that's stayed with us there all these years, and its been in the there behind us, dragging us down and down and down," Alex Barker said in an interview. Obsessions' three remaining stores have closed as a result of the mounting costs associated with their Yaletown location, and the couple are struggling to keep their apartment on English Bay.
The refusal of the B.C. government to compensate merchants along the Canada Line is something of a provincial mystery. Not so much a whodunit as a why-won't-they. The mystery is compounded by the B.C. government's recent offer to Tsawwassen homeowners to buy up their homes in the wake of the town's power line debacle. Go figure: the reported health risks from high-tension wires rest on hotly debated statistics, yet the Canada Line's ongoing damage to Vancouver retail outlets have been in plain sight for years.
As new immigrants to Canada 12 years ago, we had nothing," Barker elaborated in an email. "No past business record, no credit history and no credibility. We earned all of that in spades over the following eight years. Then Canada Line stripped us of all of it." At its height, the prize-winning Obsessions had 34 employees. "For eight years we built this wonderful business, and we had wonderful people."
For Barker, the price has been higher than a trashed credit rating. One day last fall, a perfect storm of bad breaks and worse news pushed him over the edge. He and his partner had been to Royal Bank trying to negotiate a rescue package to refinance their business and pay off existing debts. Their loan was turned down, and the same day the couple learned the sale of their Denman street location had been turned down. Barker came home " devastated and worried sick." He drank a mickey of vodka, and took some of his partners' sleeping and anti-anxiety pills. Kenna called for an ambulance, and doctors revived Barker at St. Paul's hospital. "It was a wakeup call for me to stop the madness," the businessman says in retrospect. "I wouldn't say my home and business isn't worth it, of course it is, but to let the government have taken me to that point..."
Barker says they have received virtually no help from Canada Line representatives or local politicians. "The government suddenly takes it away from you and you have that feeling you are totally powerless to do anything about it. I petitioned Lorne Mayencourt, petitioned Hedy Fry, Tim Stevenson, I had meetings with them all--dead end, dead end, dead end. It was absolutely crushing."
Today Barker appears healthy and centred. Kenna is the one struggling for the right words to describe how he's dealing with the epic dimensions of their years-long struggle. "I suspect again that this whole experience will offer me wisdom, strength for the next phase of my life. I am a very positive person and love the excitement of starting something or inspiring someone else through my own life lessons. I try each day to make sure I put a little time aside for myself to relax and reflect and focus on what I need to do the next day to keep me moving forward."
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