Civil Rights Movement.ca

James Keller
THE CANADIAN PRESS

Robert Dziekanski’s mother Sofia Cisowski, left, is comforted by friend Zygmunt Riddle as she cries after placing flowers near the spot where her son died to mark what would have been his 42nd birthday at Vancouver International Airport in Richmond, B.C., on Wednesday April 15, 2009. (CP/Darryl Dyck)

VANCOUVER–Robert Dziekanski’s mother returned Wednesday to the scene of his fatal confrontation with the RCMP to mark what would have been his 42nd birthday.

Zofia Cisowski flew in from her home in Kamloops, B.C., and left flowers, two candles and a get-well-soon card near where her son collapsed after he was stunned with a Taser in the international arrivals area.

Saying she is still broken-hearted over his very public death 18 months ago, Cisowski paused briefly to pray before signing the card, which on the front had a brown teddy bear and the words, “Get better soon.”

“I just feel I have to, I must,” an emotional Cisowski told reporters. “If I (do) not today go to Vancouver, then my heart may be broke.”

Cisowski was escorted by an airport official into the secure area where Dziekanski had his fatal confrontation with police.

Much has changed in the year and a half since the death. A glass wall that separated onlookers has been replaced by a large information booth, and construction has partitioned off parts of the terminal.

But the area is still recognizable from a witness’s dramatic video of Dziekanski’s death, broadcast countless times around the world.

Cisowski walked along the railing that four RCMP officers hopped over before they approached her son, and within seconds stunned multiple times with the Taser.

She continued through the same door that, minutes before police arrived, the witness video shows Dziekanski had blocked as he started throwing furniture around.

And Cisowski sobbed into the arms of a friend as she stood in the area where her son was hit with the first jolt of electricity from the Taser, his chilling screams echoing throughout the hall.

Dziekanski, who didn’t speak English and was coming to Canada from Poland to live with his mother, had been in the airport for nearly 10 hours.

He mistakenly believed he could meet his mother in the secure customs hall, but Cisowski was in the public area with no way to contact him. She was eventually told by immigration staff that he likely wasn’t at the airport, and she should return home.

By the time Dziekanski finally cleared customs, she was gone.

After the memorial at the airport, Cisowski returned to an ongoing public inquiry into her son’s death.

A homicide investigator who examined the scene told the inquiry that Dziekanski’s suitcases had the usual necessities of travel: socks, underwear, toiletry items, a Polish-English dictionary.

He also had a large collection of atlases, binders and books – a testament to his love of geography.

There was a cellphone that didn’t work in Canada, and a small amount of money: 15 euros (about $24 Cdn), 90 Polish zlotys (about $34 Cdn) and some coins. In one pocket of his jacket he had a wallet and ID cards and in another a strawberry danish, possibly from one of his flights.

Dziekanski, who police have suggested was an alcoholic suffering from withdrawal, also had a bottle of vodka, full and unopened. An autopsy showed potential signs of chronic alcohol abuse, such as a fatty liver, but there were no alcohol or drugs in his system.

RCMP Const. Paul Hoivik said he and three other homicide investigators from an integrated police unit, called in to investigate the in-custody death, watched the witness video taken by Paul Pritchard at about 5:30 a.m. – roughly four hours after the confrontation.

The video has raised questions about the initial account of Dziekanski’s death given by the officers involved to homicide investigators and by RCMP officials in media reports. The witness video, played again and again at the inquiry, became public more than a month after Dziekanski’s death.

RCMP officials are expected to appear at the inquiry next week.

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