October 27 update: The inquiry into the death of Robert Dziekanski has been further postponed to January, 2009 to give the Crown more time to consider whether to lay charges in respect of the October 14, 2007 incident. Apparently, the prosecutors are awaiting further investigative material from the RCMP.

What a disgraceful reflection on our system of criminal “justice” that it takes more than a year to deal with a fatality captured on videotape!

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This from the Vancouver Sun, back on October 16, 2008:

“Crown wants more evidence on fatal YVR Taser incident

Neal Hall, Vancouver Sun

Published: Thursday, October 16, 2008

The Crown is seeking further materials before deciding whether charges are warranted against RCMP officers involved in a fatal incident a year ago when a Polish man was jolted with a Taser at Vancouver International Airport.

“We’re awaiting further materials, including expert reports,” Stan Lowe of the B.C. criminal justice branch said Wednesday. “Once we have those, we will continue to expedite the process.”

Lowe declined to provide an estimate of how much longer the charge assessment process may take.”

……

Over a year ago, four burly armed men confronted a tired, confused and disoriented unarmed immigrant in a public place and immediately shot him with 50,000 volts of electricity from a “less than lethal” prohibited weapon. The whole incident was captured on videotape and everyone involved was immediately identified.

Why do those in our criminal justice system, supposedly one of the best in the world, need to take more than a year to decide whether the law may have been broken? Why should it take more than a year to decide whether to lay charges?

The answer is obvious.

In British Columbia, as far as I can tell, no police officer has ever faced a criminal trial in respect of a death occurring after the intentional application of force to a member of the public. To put it another way, police officers in BC enjoy immunities that the rest of us do not.

In the Dziekanski incident, any lawyer worth his or her salt will say that the videotape showed police using more force than was reasonably necessary to deal with the unfortunate Robert Dziekanski….

In my opinion, all this time is being taken, not to gather evidence to support a charge, but to gather evidence to support a decision not to lay a charge.

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Here, once again, is the outrageous and damning video evidence: