No mercy

A month ago, a man boarded a flight to Vancouver from Poland. Robert Dziekanski, a construction worker, was on his way to his new life in Canada with his mother, who had spent years saving to bring her only son to live with her, where they would go into business together after he learned how to speak English.

He never made it.

After disembarking, he got lost in the airport; not speaking English, he did not know what to do, and ended up stuck in the secure baggage terminal where he stayed for over ten hours. Getting agitated that nobody was coming to help him and get him out of his Plexiglas prison, he got upset and tried to prop a sliding door open with some chairs. Perhaps as a plea for help, he picked up an electronic terminal and threw it. A woman spoke to him, trying to calm him down, but nobody nearby spoke Polish. In fact, as the police arrived, an airport worker repeatedly told the approaching RCMP that, "He speaks Russian, no English."

"How are you sir," as the police, all business rapidly approached him. "Policia, policia", he said, hoping perhaps they could help him. Staring uncomprehendingly at him for a few seconds, he turned away frustrated that even they could not help him. He walked over to the Plexiglas wall, picking up an ordinary office stapler on his way, and turned to find the police had semi-circled him, surrounding him beside the wall. In Polish, he said something to them loudly, but didn't get to finish his sentence.

Instead, one of the officers had pulled and fired a taser at him. "Shrieking in pain he staggered forward, and then fell on the ground as another taser crack split the air. Looking like a sick parody of a break dance, he writhes on the ground screaming in agony. Four police officers kneel on him. He shakes and screams some more while the officers hold him down like some sort of tranquilized rhino. Someone shouts, "Hit him again," but it wouldn't be necessary. The screams slow, and the shaking stops.

So does his heart. Robert Dziekanski lies dead on the floor, never allowed to set foot inside his new country.

And I am ashamed to be Canadian. We all failed him - the people who could have welcomed him off the plane, or let his mother find him, the airport staff who seemed think he's some crazy Russian and could have easily figured out from the arrivals who he was and where he was from, and the police who seemed to be in too much of a hurry to settle things. We all failed him.

is this how we will be welcoming our Vancouver 2010 guests?