In the aftermath of Vancouver’s recent RCMP taser killing tragedy, the rug-sweep press extravaganza has taken full charge. If you haven’t seen this yet, see video below.

We begin with the Vancouver Airport Authority attempting to divert any blame towards management or personnel responsibility. Why didn’t anyone offer help, support, or translation? We all know how frustrating the airport can be… imagine 12 hours of delay, confusion, getting lost, and a complete inability to communicate. Think you might get a bit agitated?

Apparently the problem is infrastructure. According to Chief Executive Larry Berg,

“I think that we’ve lost a little bit of the human touch, the ability to reach out to people, individuals who may have different, unique circumstances, such as this individual did.”¹

No shit. When a foreign visitor gets lost for 12 hours in a major international airport that is preparing for the Olympic Games, I would expect some concerns. But despite the god-awful absence of systemized customer assistance - it is a sickening realization that the airport personnel did not step up to diffuse the situation. Anyhow, the Vancouver Airport Authority, in all its divine wisdom, decided to throw some consumer money on the issue in hopes of concealing this rather ugly scar. I’m sure $1.3 million will give their hollow apologies a voice.

On to the RCMP, who, do indeed have a tough job. Which is exactly why such a job shouldn’t be taken lightly. A few days ago Big Shot Mounties announced new regulations to restrict the use of tasers for individuals who are “combative” or “actively resistant”. Well ummm… do you really need a regulation that says that?

While admitting that tasers have been used inappropriately in the past, no clear indication was given whether the death of Robert Dziekanski was one of those circumstances. Hard to get greedy I suppose; its difficult enough to have the RCMP admit they make mistakes, let alone point one out in particular.

The simple answer to all this hubub is responsibility. Questions about whether tasers should even be used or whether they are torture are ludicrous. If you want a proper police force then they must be equipped to enforce… but if you want them to make sound judgments, you have to equip them with training and responsibility. The attitude of superiority and the mindless reflexes of these officers should be our prime concern.

But nobody wants to talk about that. So let us move on. Let us sweep these grains of infuriating incompetence beneath us. Sweep it away. Now repeat after me “the government and RCMP is only there for my protection.”

Good.

Feel better?

You won’t after watching this:

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1. Vancouver Airport Authority spending $1.3 million in wake of Polish man’s death. Canadian Press. 7 December 2007. [↩]