VANCOUVER – A top-ranking RCMP officer testified at the Braidwood inquiry Tuesday that his 2007 e-mail, which brought a sudden halt to the inquiry last June, was accurate to his best recollection.
"I believe what is written here is an accurate reflection of the conversation I had with Supt. [Wayne] Rideout," recalled Chief Supt. Dick Bent.
"I think it’s what I intended to say," he said.
"I think I wrote this very quickly after our conversation," he added.
Bent sent the e-mail, dated Nov. 5, 2007, under the subject line "Media Strategy – Release of YVR video," which said: "Finally spoke to [Supt.] Wayne [Rideout] and he indicated that the members did not articulate that they saw the symptoms of excited delirium, but instead had discussed the response en route and decided that if he did not comply that they would go to CEW [conducted energy weapon]."
The e-mail, sent to RCMP Assistant Commissioner Al Macintyre, contradicted the previous testimony of the four officers involved in the in-custody death of Robert Dziekanski, who died at Vancouver’s airport after he was zapped five times with a stun gun, was restrained and handcuffed.
The late disclosure of Bent’s last June brought a sudden halt to the inquiry, which is probing Dziekanski’s death.
The inquiry resumed Tuesday with Bent as the first witness.
Cross-examined by lawyer Ravi Hira, representing Const. Kwesi Millington, the officer who deployed the Taser on Dziekanski on Oct. 14, 2007, Bent agreed he had no notes of his phone conversation with Rideout.
Commission counsel Art Vertlieb told inquiry Commissioner Thomas Braidwood, a retired judge, that during the three-month break, the lawyers for the government of Canada, representing the RCMP, disclosed about 18,000 documents related to the incident.
Rideout testified Tuesday that Bent got it wrong in the e-mail
"The last paragraph is inaccurate," Rideout testified.
"That’s not what happened," he said of Bent’s e-mail.
Rideout testified he did have a conversation with Bent about the media strategy in relation to the incident.
But he said Bent’s summary of their conversation was incorrect.
"The IHIT investigation found no evidence whatsoever of any plan to deploy the CEW [conducted energy weapon]," Rideout recalled.
He added Bent is a highly respected RCMP member, "but the way he set out my comments [in the e-mail] is wrong."
Other scheduled RCMP witnesses are: Macintyre and Staff-Sgt. Doug Wright, who was in charge of the airport sub-detachment.
Two civilian witnesses will also testify: John Jubber, a United Airlines employee, and Gracie Churchill-Browne, an interpreter under contract to the Canada Border Services Agency, whose employees work in the customs and immigration area of Vancouver International Airport.
The inquiry is taking place in a federal court.
The hearing began Tuesday with Braidwood dismissing an application by Mitchell Taylor, the lawyer representing the federal government.
The application asked that any documents put to witnesses during questioning be disclosed to other lawyers a day in advance.
Braidwood ruled that request would cause further delays to the inquiry.
The final testimony is expected to wrap up this week, with final arguments by lawyers scheduled to begin Oct. 5.
Two new lawyers appeared at the inquiry Tuesday – David Crossin is appearing for RCMP Cpl. Dale Carr and Joe Doyle is representing Sgt. Pierre Lemaitre.
Both officers were involved in media relations after Dziekanski’s death.
Rideout’s lawyer, Alex Pringle, asked Bent: "Could you have misunderstood what Rideout had said?"
"I could have misunderstood certain parts of it, yes," replied Bent, who plans to retire in two weeks after 35 years with the force.
Bent testified that the investigation of Dziekanski’s in-custody death was conducted as a criminal investigation.
But under cross-examination by Don Rosenbloom, the lawyer representing the government of Poland, Bent admitted the four officers did not receive Charter warnings, which is the usual practice with criminal investigations.
Macintyre testified that he never forwarded Bent’s e-mail sent Nov. 5, 2007 to anyone else.
He said he and Deputy Commissioner Gary Bass, the commanding officer of the RCMP in B.C., met with three of the four officers – Kwesi Millington, Monty Robinson and Bill Bentley – while they were on a training course on Nov. 17, 2007 in Chilliwack.
Macintyre said the officers were not asked at that meeting why the Taser was deployed.
He said senior officers wanted to check up on the officers to see how they were doing and to discuss the need to move them away from the Richmond airport.
"We wanted to make sure they knew senior management was concerned about their well being," Macintyre recalled.
He added there were two further phone calls to the officers to make sure they were doing okay.
The officer, who oversees all criminal operations in B.C. and has been a Mountie for more than 36 years, said some of his e-mails were not able to be recovered.
The gap included e-mails sent between Nov. 1 through 8, 2007.
"I have no explanation for that," Macintyre said, adding he got a new BlackBerry on Nov. 1, 2007.
He pointed out 3,546 of his e-mails were recovered.
Macintyre said RCMP e-mails are automatically stored but computer experts could not find the missing e-mails.
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