Remembering the animals

The sad state of affairs at the Toronto Humane Society is, nevertheless, a chance to remind readers about http://onebarkatatime.blogspot.com/ and the great work of this blog. See what he's been writing about the Humane Society.  I also love the art:

 
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There's only one thing about the raid that is troubling, and that is the pepper-spraying of Bandit, the half-lab, half-pitbull Tim Trow rescued and kept in his office. Without gettting into Bandit's history, or what should or shouldn't have happened in the past as human beings were messing up this dog's life, there's no apparent reason police should have gone in and pepper-sprayed the animal. The dog's  presence in Trow's office could hardly have been a surprise; in fact it was probably the one thing police could anticipated before events unfolded. There are other ways to capture a dog without blasting him in the eyes with pepper spray. They might have done a little preparation, no? Also, it's a good bet Bandit will be put down down because he will be seen as a symbol of Trow's troubled tenure and it will be as much about Trow as Bandit. A shame.

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I had my own bad experience with the Toronto Humane Society, learning only later that I was hardly the only journalist to be treated with disdain. I was covering a murder of a middle-aged woman who lived in subsidized housing in the city. Her partner was arrested for the murder but neighbours wanted to take in her little dog. They showed me a photo album of the animal, who seemed to have spent a lot of time with the murdered woman's friend. She lived in the next-door apartment in the housing complex. Police had taken the animal to the Humane Society and, when I called on behalf of the neighbour (who'd already been turned away when she tried to adopt), the public relations officer was extremely rude, insisting they knew best what should be done with the pup. From the superior attitude, it was clear to me the person felt a resident of public housing could not possibly care for an animal as per their specifications. Did I mention the photo album made it clear the dog had spent a good deal of time with the woman who wanted to adopt her? She even had a big stash of chew toys and a sleeping mat for the dog in her apartment. But, as I said, they knew best.

Taser inquiry: Mountie not a trained medical person

THE CANADIAN PRESS PHOTOS

Zofia Cisowski and, below, her son, Robert Dziekanski.

Given the template in which the commanding officer didn't have up-to-date first aid or Taser certification, there were many moments of sick humour during this week's questioning of senior officer, Cpl. Benjamin "Monty" Robinson. (By out-of-date, one should explain his first-aid certification expired in March 2003 and his Taser training in March 2006. Still, he testified he considered himself capable of offering medical assistance to Robert Dziekanski and give commands for Taser use, although he didn't carry one himself.)

Here's an example of the type of daily exchanges that had listeners groaning:

Don Rosenbloom, lawyer for the Polish republic, attempted to ascertain Robinson's awareness of Dziekanski's condition as lay on the floor, face down, hands cuffed behind his back.

Robinson had observed his ears were blue.

Rosenbloom explained to the inquiry that's what happens when someone is cyanotic: the extremities turn blue.

"Extremities?" asked Robinson, as if puzzled.

"Yes," said Rosenbloom. "Would you agree earlobes are an extremity?"

Replied Robinson: “I’m not a trained medical person."

For the record, it should be noted another officer considered Dziekanski's "blue discolouration" serious enough to merit a Code 3 emergency call to paramedics. Dziekanski was pronounced dead at the scene.

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Liberal MP Mark Holland, the public safety/national security critic representing Ajax-Pickering, said he couldn't even imagine how Dziekanski's mother, Zofia Cisowski can sit daily, as she's been doing, and keep hearing and seeing (the video) and know, "this is the way her son's life ended."

But she continues to hold vigil in the Braidwood Commission inquiry room, listening, watching, occasionally sobbing softly or wiping her brow with a cloth. She looks like her deceased son, the same round face, almond-shaped eyes and dark hair. At 71, she shows what her son might have looked like had he lived another 31 years.

Dziekanski planned to live with his mother in Kamloops. On the more than 15 hours of travel from Poland, with a transfer in Germany, he'd lugged mostly beloved geography books in his suitcases.

He arrived in Vancouver at 3 p.m.; his mother was waiting for him. She waited until 10 p.m. and, having been assured by airport staffers her son wasn't there, drove home to Kamloops.

He wandered helplessly around the secure international arrivals area, with nobody apparently able to help him, before police were called. She drove home to a message saying her son had been found and was fine. Around 2 a.m., she began the drive back to the airport, only to discover the information was tragically false

The Pritchard Video: How good are your eyes?

I'm posting the Paul Pritchard video again, now the four Mounties involved when Robert Dziekanski died at Vancouver airport in their custody have all testified. (Yesterday's final day of testimony for the week focused on paramedic Allan Maciak who said Dziekanski was dead when his team arrived at the airport Oct. 14/07, about 10 minutes after he was stunned with an RCMP Taser five times.

Eyes of people in the courtroom, and the adjoining press room, blurred this week, gazing repeatedly at the amateur video and trying to follow whichever laser pointer was used to focus on an image. We had the advantage of seeing it enlarged, sections isolated and stopped. But it's still possble to do it without the court's equipment.

Here's the thing: The Mounties describe their calm entry into the airport arrivals section where Robert Dziekanski was located. Cpl. Benjamin "Monty" Robinson says he spoke to the Polish immigrant and, while he knew he didn't speak English, made a series of hand gestures to make his commands known. Stop, calm down, put your hands on the counter, etc. Earlier statements from the Mounties suggested Dziekanski was agitated and threatening when they arrived - before the hand signals began - and that once he picked up the stapler, he swung it wildly. That was later changed to just holding the stapler. A great deal of effort was spent in court staring at the video in an effort both to determine what Dziekanski was actually doing when police arrived and trying to pinpoint Robinson's hand gestures in a sequence of events that led to Dziekanksi ultimately pickeing up a stapler from a counter.

The next screening focused on what happened after Dziekanski was down, how the Mounties checked his medical condition, where Robinson's knee was in relation to his neck - which would have been an inadvisable use of pressure - and whether they rolled Dziekanski off his stomach.

The court had the advantage of having the sound of the Taser being administered added to the sound. Without that, it's hard to determine exactly when Dziekanski is being Tasered. The whole thing is rough going, but I leave it to readers to watch the video and determine what you can see.

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Mea culpa for not blogging from the Braidwood Commission yesterday. I'm writing for the weekend today and will return to it on Decoder a last time on Monday.

Back to the Pritchard video: Where's the corporal's knee?

As of Wednesday afternoon, the Braidwood Commission Inquiry is peering at the Paul Pritchard amateur video to determine where Cpl. Benjamin "Monty" Robinson's knee was when Robert Dziekanski was on the ground. Was he putting pressure on Dziekanski's neck?

The focus was on 24 seconds in the video, from 5:10 minutes to 5:34 minutes. You can see Dziekanski on his stomach and his head visible. Just below his head, Robinson's sole is visible. Lawyer Don Rosembloom, acting for the Polish republic, argues the angle of the sole of his shoe eans his knee - or some part of his leg - was resting on Dziekanski's neck, thereby applying pressure.

"I know where my knee was and it wasn't on his neck," said Robinson.

* * *

Robinson, who was the senior officer that night, is finishing his third day of testimony. He appears to be getting testy. Rosenbloom said when emergency crews arrived, Dziekanki had no pulse.

"If that's what you're telling me," said Robinson.

Braidwood Commission: Watching amateur video until eyes glaze

It's probably the most watched 10 minutes ever videotaped on the RCMP, with the possible exception of training videos. But this is no training video.

It's amateur video taken by bystander Paul Pritchard at the Vancouver International Airport in the early morning of October 14, 2007 and shows events in which four Mounties confronted Polish immigrant Robert Dziekanski. Shortly, thereafter, Dziekanski was dead, having been jolted five times by an RCMP Taser.

Again today, Commissioner Thomas Braidwood, lawyers, spectators and witness RCMP Cpl. Benjamin "Monty" Robinson pored over details in the video at the public Braidwood Commission inquiry examining the events of Dziekanski's death. Every lawyer uses it in an attempt to show how statements from RCMP officers differs from scenes in the video. This morning's challenge was to pick out Dziekanski's hand movements before he moved to an airport counter and picked up a stapler. Were they threatening towards the four officers or, as suggested by lawyer Don Rosebloom, a mere fluttering of hands essentially at his sides?

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Whenever the video differed greatly from today's testimony from Cpl. Benjamin "Monty" Robinson, he would remark: "I saw it."

At one instance, however, he gave a long description of how there were "small little movements" of Dziekanski's hands, but "you're not going to see that."

Asked Don Rosenbloom, lawyer for the Polish republic: "Can you see that?"

* * *

Robinson also seemed to have trouble understanding Rosenbloom's vocabulary.

"Important?" he asked, as if hearing a strange word for the first time. He was considering a question about RCMP Taser use.

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Retired B.C. justice Thomas Braidwood certainly has a problem with names. Yesterday, he called  Walter Kosteckyj, lawyer for Dziekanski's mother, Zofia Cisowski, "Dziekanski" a couple of times.

Today, he keeps calling Rosenbloom, "Rosenberg."

Were it not for 10 minutes of amateur video

It's impossible to cover the Braidwood Commission inquiry without wondering how things would have turned out without the 10-minute amateur video of events shot by bystander Paul Pritchard.

Odds are it would be very different. Indeed, would there even be an inquiry into how Robert Dziekanski died after being jolted five times by an RCMP Taser? No wonder Pritchard had to get a lawyer to get the Mounties to release the video (and camcorder) they'd seized from him at the airport.

Supervising Mountie: "I failed to articulate well."

No kidding.

Once again, the testimony at this morning's Braidwood Commission inquiry into Robert Dziekanski's death was like going through the looking glass into Wonderland. On the stand, Cpl. Benjamin "Monty" Robinson - the supervising officer that early morning in 2007 - gave a very different account of events at the Vancouver International Airport in October, 2007, than what he initially told an immediate RCMP investigation into the "in-custody death" of Dziekanski. He was pronounced dead at the scene after receiving five Taser jolts.

"So you were wrong?" said lawyer Walter Kosteckyj (acting for the deceased's mother), repeatedly, about Robinson's earlier statements. He'd said, for example Dziekanski had stacked his luggage up against the door of the arrivals section.

"It didn't happen?" asked Kosteckyj.

"No," said Robinson.

One by one, Kosteckyj went through earlier statements and got the same matter-of-fact "no" from Robinson.

So, was Dziekanski really "swinging" a stapler at the team of four Mounties  and did he really try to "hit them with it."

"Ah, no."

And was he "angry and pissed off . . . kinda aggressive . . . not just where he's wired up."

"No."

Did it really happen "really quickly where he took the stapler and started swinging it at us."

"Not 100 percent accurate, no," replied Robinson.

Robinson even contradicted his earlier statement Dziekanski hadn't gone down after being Tasered once - out of five hits.

"You agree he went down?" asked Kosteckyj. "So that wasn't accurate either?"

"I didn't articulate that well, no."

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Robinson obviously took advice from his lawyer, Reg Harris. Mostly, he seemed almost disinterested but he snapped to life whenever he could fire off at Kosteckjy: "I don't see where you're going with this."

He even did it when the lawyer was just asking him to point out his own location on the video of events that night taken by amateur Paul Pritchard.

At one point this morning, the inconsistencies in his testimony had a confused Commissioner Thomas Braidwood calling Kostekyj, "Mr. Dziekanski."

* * *

The morning's low point? Had to be when Kosteckyj was asking Robinson about Dziekanski's symptoms once on the ground. He'd already established Robinson's first aid certification had expired and was asking about breathing sounds. In his first report to the RCMP, Robinson  said they sounded like "snoring."

He tried to explain today, then stopped.

"You're smiling, sir!" snapped Kosteckyj, asking Robinson if he found something funny.

"No," came the reply.

No further explanation was offered.

Throughout that exchange, Dziekanski's mother, Zofia Cisowski sobbed quietly. She's been a constant presence at the inquiry.

A plea for Colombia

Carlos Osorio, Toronto Star Photo

Colombian activists in Toronto Monday

A delegation of Colombian activists is in Ottawa this week, asking the government, as well as opposition MPs, to review the Canada-Colombia Free Trade deal, signed last November and expected to be introduced in the House soon. They'd like to see parliamentarians vote against it, at least until the human rights review promised last year in an all-party committee report is carried out. (It appears that idea has been deep-sixed.) Remember, this is the deal that asks companies to pay a token fine when a trade unionist is assassinated (450 have been killed since 2002), leaving NDP trade critic Peter Julian to last year term it the "decriminalization of murder."

Canadian supporters of the deal argue trade is the best thing for a country like Colombia where human rights abuse is so egregious. In the lead-up to Valentine's Day, this delegation talked about "slave labour" conditions in the greenhouses where women and children work for Colombia's important cut flower business. They urged a boycott by Canadian buyers. But, say free trade boosters, better to improve conditions in the greenhouses than rob Colombians of work. Bettering conditions would be great. Terrific. Human rights activists - nuns, priests, indigenous and union leaders, teachers and organizers for women's groups - have long fought for these very improvements themselves,  often at the expense of their lives. Advocates of the deal suggest this lightbulb idea of bettering conditions as if it had never dawned on Colombians. It seems like they are supposed to work quietly for change at home but never alert the world to what's going on.

Sadly, there's a great deal of naivete about how things really work. It's as if people think it's as easy as starting a petition, working for a union or talking to management about a list of conditions. In Colombia, you get killed for doing that. There is overwhelming evidence of death squads linked to the military targeting anybody from civil society fighting for democratic values and fair working conditions. That trend is made sickenly worse by evidence of co-operation between the death squads and multi-national companies who already exploit the best land, produce and natural resources - and then stand to profit even more from free trade. Human rights groups document the collusion, but it is exceedingly difficult to prove. However, amidst reports of involvement by several big-name companies, the U.S. Justice Department fined Chiquita Brands International $25 million in 2007, after the company admitted to having paid $1.7 million to the terrorist organization, the United Self Defence Forces of Colombia. to stop union organising. The Spanish initials of the group is AUC, which Colombians translate with dark humour as "Friends of Uribe for Colombia." (Alvaro Uribe is president.) If you try to organize, if you complain, if you lead a democratic organization, you don't get a reprimand, you have your life taken away from you.

There is, too, the view the justice system is similar to Canada's, meaning that, although not perfect, one doesn't take one's life in one's hands by appealing to police or the courts. It's different in Colombia. There are many cases of extraordinary bravery among Colombian judicial officials who try to expose human rights violations, from kidnapping and torture to extrajudicial murder. But, too often, police, judges and the military don't want to know. Too often, they already know because the military is involved. Events are reported - including the massacre a few years ago of civilians in a northern town while army  army helicopters circled overhead - and eye-witness reports are ignored. I know. I've done some of the investigating myself, not just in Colombia but countries like Mexico where counter-terrorism usually means campaigns against the poor and weak, and not rebels.

It's totally respectable to have a different opinion about Canada-Colombia free trade than these four activists currently in Canada. But those who support trade should educate themselves about what really happens to workers. It makes no sense for a parliamentary committee to recommend a comprehensive human rights review and then for the government to ignore it. Even George Bush backed away from free trade with Colombia last year.

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I offer a small smile with this video in a week where the world is literally burning: 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uUbsc_a-e3g

It's everybody's problem when 50,000 York students can't go to classes

Toronto Star Photos

York Student protest.

You can't live in the GTA (and many other places) without being affected by what's happening to York University students who haven't been able to go to class for well over two months.  We all know somebody who is affected by the labour dispute between the administration and 3,340  teaching assistants, contract faculty and graduate assistants. Maybe it's a student, perhaps it's someone in their family. More than that though, when this many (mostly young) lives are in complete limbo and kids are living scared about their futures, it must be seen as a larger societal problem. They have sacrificed financially, they can't make plans, they don't know whether they'll lose their year - or even their degree.

Today is the deadline for applications to universities for next year; it seems apparent York management wasn't overly concerned about the potential of losing students too cautious to apply to York. I have followed this strike through friends and the capable coverage of Toronto Star education reporter Louise Brown and, probably like many others, react to failed negotiations with an attitude of "a pox on both their houses." However, it has been particularly disheartening to see the administration refusing to meet with students (taking questions only at two pre-Christmas senate meetings) in the open way the union (CUPE 3903) has done. Surely such an imperial style will facilitate neither ending the strike nor improving labour relations when it's over.

I hear about the strike at my gym. One of my biggest extravagances is keeping in shape with the help of a terrific trainer, Michael Fong, and I've watched him wait week after week for some sense of what's going to happen with his life. At the beginning of 2009, he and other trainers who go to York thought settlement was only a matter of days away, only to have hopes dashed. Mike is in his 3rd year of the Kinesiology and Health Science program (at a cost of about $4,000, not including books), and I asked him to jot down some of his problems and send them to me. He replied:

"-Not being able to work extra hours because I cannot commit to clients when I don't know when classes will resume, therefore, even with the break I'm maintaining same hours as if in school.
- Worried about writing exams in a more condensed schedule (2 weeks instead of 3 weeks).  This creates a problem when trying to maintain a high G.P.A which is important for admission into graduate school. 
- Summer school may be cancelled.  I was depending on summer school in order to keep up with program requirements, as I work during the school year so I generally carry a lighter course load and make it up in the summer.
- Feel like I've been ripped off because I paid for a full school year and will now be getting fewer classes, less learning material, shortened exam schedule and no money back.  "

He also wrote about others who face difficulties, including:

"- Unable to find jobs during strike since they are unable to tell employer when they will be back in class
- If classes go into summer break they will have difficulty finding summer jobs because most will be taken by the time York students finish school.
- Many students depend on summer jobs to pay for school.
- Some students have lost money that they had spent on plane tickets which were purchased prior to strike.  Tickets were purchased for January but had to be cancelled because they did not know if we would be back in school by then. 
- Some students have lost all motivation to study and keep up with school work and will likely pay for it once school commences again.  They were doing well before the strike but with such a long lay-off it has become easy lose motivation and drive.
- One student I know started a student organization prior to the strike.  She had put in a lot of work in organizing and starting the group only to see much of her hard work go to waste.  She is afraid that once school resumes it will be difficult to get the group re-organized since school will be so chaotic and nobody will have any free time.  She had started the group in order to diversify her resume for law school.
-Students who are graduating this year need their marks submitted in order to apply for graduate school.  Since marks will be submitted late this may affect their chances of  being accepted into graduate school."

This is a miserable economic time, frigid weather saps the will to survive and everybody has problems. But this is the perfect issue for citizens to make their views known to everybody they can think of, including politicians. I don't have an easy answer because I don't want to see a legislated end to a legal strike (which wouldn't apply here anyway), or even a forced vote, but put negotiating teams in a room, lock the door, send in food - and don't let them out until these kids have their lives back.