Juno News - A cover-up by the RCMP

Constable Jerry Rundle and Corporal Monty Robinson were two of the four members who responded to YVR in 2007 to respond to a disturbance in the arrivals hall of the international arrivals terminal. The call required the members to go hands-on and to use a taser or conducted energy weapon in trying to control Polish traveler Robert Zakansky who was throwing things around at the airport.

00:00:00.000 The RCMP is without question a monolithic bureaucratic organization. Constable Jerry

00:00:11.560 Rundle and Corporal Monty Robinson, retired, were two of the four members responded to YVR in October

00:00:18.820 2007 to respond to a disturbance in the arrivals hall of the international site. The call required

00:00:26.240 the members to go hands-on and to use a taser or conducted energy weapon, if you will, in trying

00:00:32.860 to control Polish traveler Robert Zakansky, who was throwing things around at the airport and without

00:00:39.620 the ability to communicate with him in English beyond hand signals, there was little opportunity

00:00:45.080 for them to try and de-escalate the situation. Zakansky died in the ensuing confrontation of

00:00:52.740 coronary issues, alcoholism, and stress, according to the autopsy report. What resulted were multiple

00:01:00.320 investigations, the Braidwood Commission of Inquiry, a special prosecutor, and prosecution

00:01:07.440 of all four members for perjury in what can only be described as a travesty of justice.

00:01:14.980 Every investigation report done, including the external review by the OPP of the original

00:01:21.660 IHIT investigation, found no fault with the attending members or the investigators. Both

00:01:27.900 Robinson and Rundle knew that they did nothing wrong, and they also knew that the RCMP was,

00:01:34.460 if not concealing that, they were at least covering up that fact from the media and the public.

00:01:40.980 In 2013, they began in earnest, through the use of access to information requests, to try

00:01:48.320 and peel back layers of the onion and see if they could discover the RCMP saying they did

00:01:54.820 nothing wrong. What they did discover, beside a variety of reports saying they did nothing

00:02:01.440 wrong, was evidence of the RCMP trying to conceal reports saying exactly that, a cover-up by our

00:02:08.580 national police force. It's outrageous. Federal law mandates that all federal departments are

00:02:16.520 subject to ATIP requests and must comply. But we now have evidence of the RCMP denying for

00:02:23.820 seven years the existence of a report by Superintendent Wade Blizzard exonerating the YPR-4 despite an email

00:02:33.500 from Assistant Commissioner Peter German describing the report. And why is that?

00:02:40.440 The Blizzard report undermines the RCMP response and follow-up documentation where appropriate

00:02:46.680 and followed all regulations and procedures that there were at the time. You'd almost think

00:02:53.020 that after the media storm they had endured, they would be trumpeting that from the rooftops.

00:02:59.620 The other thing that emerged from the recent documents obtained by Constable Rundle is the absolute

00:03:06.020 toothlessness of the Office of the Privacy Commissioner. Without delving too deeply into it, Rundle began

00:03:13.800 this quest in 2013. He only received what he was looking for this week, seven years later. That

00:03:22.800 itself is offensive. But after his multiple complaints about the RCMP not being responsive, he received

00:03:31.040 an answer from the Privacy Commissioner saying that he was making a finding against the RCMP and if

00:03:39.040 Rundle wanted to do anything about it, he had to make application via the federal court. What? What exactly is the Privacy

00:03:49.360 Commissioner if not to make enforceable findings? Frankly, it is just another useless bureaucratic agency.

00:03:59.920 For True North, I'm Leo Knight.

Juno News - December 07, 2020

A cover-up by the RCMP

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