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Canada ordered a review into the use of Tasers yesterday after graphic video footage emerged showing police using the stun guns to shoot an unarmed man, who then collapsed and died.
The video, broadcast repeatedly on Canadian and US television networks and posted on the internet, showed the Polish immigrant, Robert Dziekanski, shrieking in agony after he was hit by 50,000-volt blasts at Vancouver Airport a month ago.
"I've asked for a review relating to the use of Tasers ... This is a tragic and grievous incident. We want to find out answers that can prevent these things from happening in the future," Public Security Minister Stockwell Day told Parliament.
Canadians reacted with horror to the images of Dziekanski writhing on the floor moments before he died. Some people complained that police acted too quickly to stun a man who did not appear to be threatening them.
"Shame, shame, shame," said one of many angry callers to a Vancouver radio station.
The video cast severe doubt on the official Royal Canadian Mounted Police account of the incident, which said officers fired Taser shots at Dziekanski after he became abusive.
The video, taken by a bystander at the airport, initially shows a sweating and upset Dziekanski throwing a small table at a window in the luggage retrieval section and shouting at airport staff.
By the time four police officers arrive, he has calmed down and is standing still.
Police then fired at least two shots from Taser stun guns at the 40-year-old man, who collapsed to the ground howling in pain.
At least three policemen could then be seen kneeling on Dziekanski, who died shortly afterwards.
Centre-left politician Penny Priddy said, "the screams of a dying man echo throughout the country" and that Canadians wanted answers before more lives were lost.
"Is it standard operating procedure for the RCMP to use Tasers when there is no obvious physical threat?" she asked in Parliament.
Piotr Ogrodzinski, Poland's ambassador to Canada, said the video had deeply upset him and said Warsaw wanted to learn all it could about an investigation the Mounties had launched into the case.
"The reaction of the RCMP officers was unsuitable to the situation. What I've seen was that Mr Dziekanski [was] a person who was agitated, frustrated, I think terrified, but not aggressive.
"He didn't know what to do. In fact, he was in search [of] help. That is why it is a really very sad and deeply moving film to watch."
Dziekanski flew to Canada to live with his mother in Kamloops, British Columbia.
She had told him to wait for her at the baggage area. But this meant he never passed through the customs section to enter the main part of Vancouver's airport, where she was waiting.
Dale Carr, an RCMP spokesman, said the officers involved would testify under oath at a coroner's inquest.
But the British Columbia Civil Liberties Association said coroner's inquests did not assess blame and there needed to be a criminal investigation.
- Reuters
