Showing posts with label Braidwood Inquiry. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Braidwood Inquiry. Show all posts

Sunday, 18 July 2010

l'allée suite

or Never again? or Perfidious Albion? or Not unalloyed?
Up, Down, Appendices, Postscript.

the best thing about losing your memory is that everything is ever and always new :-)the first time I thought about it all this way, that we are each and every one alone, (that I can remember :-) was in relation to some photographs by Chris Simpson from Madagascar, then this week I watched a suite of movies around the 1994 genocide in Rwanda (listed in the Appendix) and the last few frames of Beyond The Gates (aka Shooting Dogs) as Marie runs for Burundi, a-and noticing that the image completes a Victorian arch with the initial images in the film, gave me this:
Beyond The GatesBeyond The GatesBeyond The GatesBeyond The GatesBeyond The Gates
Marie's gaze, Claire-Hope Ashitey's gaze ... really I wanted to find a profile of Valentina Iribagiza from Nyarubuye somehow from Frontline's Ghosts Of Rwanda but movies not being 3-D and all ... and using Bill Clinton's smirk was also unsatisfactory given the scale of the denial, and putting the three frames side by each was unsatisfactory ... blah blah blah, whatever ...

my old friend Keith called it 'isolato' ... there was another opposite term but I have forgotten what it was ... 'communal' I think, and of course we differed on who was what and what was what ... later on he came up with a theory that there were in fact two species of human, one with compassion and one without, Kurt Vonnegut had a similar notion with his PPs - Pathological Personalities I think it was ...

Christine ShellyChristine Shellyif there are special circles in hell then Christine Shelly aka Christine Shelley and her kind should have one, not only close to being gramatically illiterate, she was the epitome of American moral illiteracy, the infamous exchange: "How many acts of genocide does it take to make a genocide? Um, Alan, that's just not a question that I'm in a position to answer" ... it is unkind to speak ill of the dead (they say) and she died of cancer in 2006 at a relatively young age - 54, I thought of doing a montage à la Marilyn Monroe/Andy Warhol, I imagine she said about the same thing many times but I could only find images of her wearing the two dresses shown (April 28 & June 10), and anyway it was a deep and rich vein of evil (or river of shit as the Fugs would call it) that she was swimming in, digging and delving, all the way from Bill Clinton, Warren Christopher, David Rawson, Prudence Bushnell, Madeleine Albright, Anthony Lake, (one two one two and through and through) in the American structure, and perfectly symmetrical at the United Nations: Boutros Boutros-Ghali, Kofi Annan, (the vorpal blade went snicker snack) ... "from the Grand Coulee dam to the Capitol, idiot wind, blowing every time you move your teeth."

They speak vanity every one with his neighbour: with flattering lips and with a double heart do they speak.
     Psalm 12.

He has two hearts instead of one. She cried, "Young man, what have ye done?"
     The Swallow.

in Ghosts of Rwanda you can see both Bill Clinton and Madelaine Albright mouthing the hollow old saws about hindsight; "if we'd known then what we know now" and "things look different in retrospect" and more ... but it is a lie, they knew, they all knew.

if there is hope it might look something like Valentina Iribagiza, she says, "I do not know why I did not die. But maybe God had a plan for me to live."
Valentina IribagizaValentina IribagizaValentina IribagizaValentina IribagizaValentina IribagizaValentina IribagizaValentina IribagizaValentina IribagizaValentina IribagizaValentina Iribagiza
... 'maybe' indeed ... the stories (3-1 & 3-2 below) and the pictures make 'too personal a tale' and it is not just a brutal story with a happy ending, the purveyors, including myself, are careless about details, don't really understand it at all ... and so on ...

He's quoted for a most perfidious slave,
With all the spots o' the world tax'd and debosh'd;
Whose nature sickens but to speak a truth.
Am I or that or this for what he'll utter,
That will speak any thing?

     speaking about Parolles in All's Well That Ends Well: V, 3.

all of my thinking always brings me back eventually to the good Samaritan and the Golden Rule, God has gone to god for me, de-morphed? but I am still ruminating on the bottom lines laid out by Clive Hamilton and Bill McKibben (here, here, & here) - liminality, community, love.

Happy Birthday! to Nelson Mandela at 92.Happy Birthday Nelson Mandelaand the crazy old fuck is still smilin' :-)and it winds back for me to the very end of Coetzee's story of Michael K and his pumpkins, and yeah, if I don't get some shelter soon maybe I'm gonna fade away too, that's ok, bound to happen eventually, all good :-) and 'soon' is a relative term :-)


Postscript:
what might be a few minor victories (items 1-1, 1-2, & 2 in the Appendix), as environment ministers begin to at least look in the right direction, and the courts of BC may strike a blow against the robocops, but who can say?

and here's something, my brother-in-law loved to read P.D. James stories ... The Children of Men, 1992 by P.D. James, and Children of Men, 2006 by Alfonso Cuarón (uTorrent).

and an American lawyer with a conscience apparently, Lieutenant-Colonel Jon S. Jackson looks like he is going to bat for Omar Khadr, while on the k-k-Canadian side we have the entirely DIS-Honourable Minister of IN-Justice, Rob Nicholson.

and finally, just a few shots from Bliss:
Honey Barbara / Helen JonesEucalyptus melliodora / Yellow BoxHarry Joy / Barry Otto
Helen Jones as Honey Barbara, a detail of Eucalyptus melliodora aka Yellow Box tree that Harry planted in his eight-year love letter, and Barry Otto as Harry Joy,

here is a bit of one of Harry Joy's stories: "In New York, there are towers of glass. It is the most terrible and beautiful city on Earth. All good, all evil exists there. If you know where to look, you can find the Devil, that is where he lives. If you keep your eyes peeled you can see him drive down 42nd Street in a Cadillac."

Peter Carey, the author of the novel Bliss now lives there apparently; nothing is as simple as we would like it to be eh? when I was fossicking about at SlowTV I noticed his closing address at the Sydney Writers' Festival, May of this year ... I just listened to a few minutes of the beginning of it then, sort of went uh? and passed on ... more later maybe ...



Appendices:
Rwanda Genocide films: Wikipedia List (incomplete)
1997: NFB The Rwanda Series;
2004: PBS Frontline, Ghosts of Rwanda, uTorrent;
2004: Hotel Rwanda, uTorrent;
2005: Sometimes in April, uTorrent;
2005: Shooting Dogs/Beyond The Gates, uTorrent;
2006: Un dimanche à Kigali/A Sunday in Kigali, uTorrent;
2007: Shake Hands with the Devil, uTorrent;
2008: NFB Triage: Dr. James Orbinski's Humanitarian Dilemma;
2009: Le jour ou Dieu est parti en voyage/The Day God Stayed/Walked Away, uTorrent.

1-1. A Tale of Two Targets, NYT Editorial, July 15 2010.
1-2. Europe needs to reduce emissions by 30%, FT, July 14 2010.
2. Braidwood commission lawyers refute Taser challenge, CP, July 9 2010.
3-1. Valentine’s Story, Holy Trinity United Methodist Church, Sunday, January 18 2009.
3-2. Testimony of Valentina Izibagiza, SURF.


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A Tale of Two Targets, NYT Editorial, July 15 2010.

The Senate spent this week searching for ways to water down the modest greenhouse gas emissions targets in the House-passed energy bill, which opponents claim — wrongly and shortsightedly — will injure the economy. The British, French and German environmental ministers showed a lot more sense this week.

They issued a bold call in The Financial Times for all European Union governments to approve stricter emissions targets, arguing that it would encourage private investment in low emissions technology and hone Europe’s export edge in low carbon goods and services.

Ministerial exhortations are one thing; binding legislation is another. Europe has generally talked a better climate-protection game than it has delivered. Yet this week’s contrast in directions is embarrassing for President Obama, who once pledged to fight for the stricter House targets, and for the United States.

At December’s climate conference in Copenhagen, most countries agreed in principle to try to hold global temperature increases to 2 degrees Celsius, by midcentury, which mainstream scientists regard as the threshold for preventing potentially catastrophic climate changes.

Achieving that will, they believe, require reducing worldwide greenhouse gas emissions by some 80 percent by 2050. Every nation will have to contribute, though not necessarily in equal measure. The House version of this year’s energy bill called for a 17 percent cut from 2005 emissions levels by 2020. The three ministers, by contrast, call for reinstating a European target of 30 percent reductions from much lower 1990 levels by 2020.

The European Union deferred that target, in part because of the economic strains of the global recession. But the ministers point out that the recession, by slowing economic activity across Europe, has actually made the original 30 percent target easier and cheaper to achieve. And they rightly note the potential export benefits for Europe of being a leading low-carbon producer.

Nobody expects the Senate to go as far as the European ministers advocate. But there is no excuse for the Senate’s backward march. We all live on the same planet, and it is getting warmer.



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Europe needs to reduce emissions by 30%, FT, July 14 2010.

By Chris Huhne/UK climate change secretary, Norbert Röttgen/German federal environment minister and Jean-Louis Borloo/French environment minister.

Europe’s current focus on recovery from recession must not distract us from the question of what kind of economy we want to build. Unless we set our countries on a path to a sustainable low-carbon future, we will face continued uncertainty and significant costs from energy price volatility and a destabilising climate.

This is why we today set out our belief that the European Union should raise its emissions target. A reduction of 30 per cent from 1990 levels by 2020 would represent a real incentive for innovation and action in the international context. It would be a genuine attempt to restrict the rise in global temperatures to 2°C – the key climate danger threshold – stiffening the resolve of those already proposing ambitious action and encouraging those waiting in the wings. It would also make good business sense.

The current target of a 20 per cent reduction now seems insufficient to drive the low-carbon transition. The recession by itself has cut emissions in the EU’s traded sector by 11 per cent from pre-crisis levels. Partly as a result, the price of carbon is far too low to stimulate significant investment in green jobs and technologies.

If we stick to a 20 per cent cut, Europe is likely to lose the race to compete in the low-carbon world to countries such as China, Japan or the US – all of which are looking to create a more attractive environment for low-carbon investment.

By moving to a higher target, the EU would have a direct impact on the carbon price through to 2020 and also send a strong signal of our commitment to a low-carbon policy framework in the longer term. We must not forget that building a low-carbon future depends overwhelmingly on the private sector. Moving to a 30 per cent target would provide greater certainty and predictability for investors.

Europe’s companies are poised to take advantage of the new opportunities. They currently have a global market share of 22 per cent of the low-carbon goods and services sector, thanks to Europe’s early leadership in tackling climate change. But the rest of the world is catching up. The Copenhagen commitments, though less ambitious than we had hoped, have triggered widespread action, notably in China, India and Japan.

Because of reduced emissions in the recession, the annual costs in 2020 of meeting the existing 20 per cent target are down a third from €70bn ($89bn, £59bn) to €48bn. A move up to 30 per cent is now estimated to cost only €11bn more than the original cost of achieving a 20 per cent reduction. In addition, delayed action would come with a high price tag: according to the International Energy Agency, every year of delayed investment on low-carbon energy sources costs €300bn to €400bn at the global level.

Furthermore, these costs were calculated on the conservative assumption that oil will cost $88 (€69, £58) a barrel in 2020. Given the current constraints on supply-side investment, rapid growth in consumption in Asia, and the impact of the Gulf of Mexico oil spill, oil prices may well rise further; under one IEA scenario, the price could reach a nominal $130 a barrel. Rising oil prices would lower the costs of hitting any targets and, under some scenarios, the direct economic effects of hitting the 30 per cent target by 2020 actually turn positive.

Some energy-intensive sectors will be exposed to greater costs than the average. We already try to safeguard them through free emissions allowances where necessary, and alternative measures might be needed over time. The real threat that such industries face, though, is not carbon prices but collapsing demand in the European construction and infrastructure markets. One sure way to increase demand for the materials these sectors produce is through incentives to boost investment in large-scale low-carbon infrastructure – a voracious user of steel, cement, aluminium and chemicals. Our industry departments are working to ensure that we manage the transition effectively and maximise opportunities for these sectors.

Ducking the argument on 30 per cent will put us in the global slow lane. Early action will provide our industries with a vital head start. That is why we believe the move to 30 per cent is right for Europe. It is a policy for jobs and growth, energy security and climate risk. Most of all, it is a policy for Europe’s future.



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Braidwood commission lawyers refute Taser challenge, CP, July 9 2010.

VANCOUVER — Taser International's legal challenge of the Braidwood commission is not only baseless, but an abuse of process, a provincial government lawyer told a B.C. Supreme Court judge Friday.

Lawyer Craig Jones said the petition by Taser was such a "waste of precious judicial resources" that he may be making the unusual request for the court to award legal costs to the provincial government.

The weapons maker is "manipulating the courts" by saying its stun gun holds no risk of death in Canada, while asserting the reverse in the United States, Jones said in a written submission to the judge.

Earlier in the week, government lawyers pointed to a Taser training bulletin that recommends users aim the device away from the heart to "avoid the remote potential risk of cardiac effect."

But Taser countered that it has never admitted the weapons are dangerous, and that the phrase was simply inserted to prevent potential lawsuits. Jones alleges the Arizona-based company changes its position to suit its local litigation needs.

"The Braidwood Report is making life difficult for Taser -- it finds itself legally compelled to admit to risks it continues to deny in other contexts," the submission states.

"If it can get the report quashed on technical grounds related to procedural fairness its litigation strategy internationally will be advanced and its marketing efforts protected."

Taser is petitioning B.C. Supreme Court to throw out the portion of Commissioner Thomas Braidwood's report about the safety of the stun guns. The retired judge concluded the weapons can kill.

The public inquiry was called in the months after Robert Dziekanski was repeatedly jolted by an RCMP Taser and died on the floor of the Vancouver airport.

Taser's lawyers argued at the start of the hearing that it was treated unfairly in the inquiry, and conclusions were reached that weren't supported by facts.

Jones argued the affidavit shows the company may have asserted it wanted the opportunity to communicate recent research findings, but instead merely intended to protect its own legal position in U.S. litigation.

He argues it "would be a shame" if the conduct of the company passes "without comment or condemnation," given the expense imposed on the B.C. taxpayers. As such, he requests the court "invite submissions on costs" after the judge issues his decision.

Lawyers for all parties wrapped the week of arguments Friday before Judge Robert Sewell, who reserved his ruling without giving a date for his decision.

"I want to thank all counsel for their most thorough, able and interesting submissions," Sewell said when the proceedings had concluded.



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Valentine’s Story, Holy Trinity United Methodist Church, Sunday, January 18 2009.

After a short introduction by Daddy Glenn, I will introduce myself also, and will then answer four questions.

INTRODUCTION:

Hello! Good morning. My name is Valentine Iribagiza. I am happy to be here today to tell you my story. I want to thank Pastor Susan and the Outreach Committee for inviting me here. My English is not good. So I hope you will understand me. The languages that I know best are French, and the native language of Rwanda, called Kinyarwanda.

When I speak to people, I like to answer questions. So today I am going to answer four questions about my life:

1. WHAT HAPPENED IN MY VILLAGE, CALLED NYARUBUYE, IN RWANDA, IN APRIL OF 1994?

In 1994 in Rwanda we had Genocide. The government of Rwanda was controlled by some people from the Hutu majority group who wanted to hold all the power.

The Hutu Power group were prepared to kill those of us who belonged to a group, called the Tutsi.

The Genocide began on April 6th, 1994, when the plane carrying the President of the country, who was a Hutu, was shot down. The President was killed.

The Hutu leaders said that the Tutsi people killed their President, so the killing of Tutsi people began immediately after the President’s plane was shot down.

Many Tutsi people died everywhere – in their homes, along the roads, by the rivers, in the mountains, and also in the churches.

The people of my village, and many other people who were running from the killers, went to the church in our village. We all thought THIS IS THE HOUSE OF GOD and they will not kill us in this church.

After two days, the Hutu killers came to the church and asked who was Hutu and who was Tutsi. The Tutsi people were kept in the church, where most all of them were killed over the next few days. We still do not know the number killed. Even today bodies are still being found buried in our village.

The killers used machetes, bombs, and big clubs with nails. I lost my family, friends, neighbors. I didn’t see my Mom, or my brothers or sisters get killed, but I saw my daddy’s body. The killers kept coming back to the church for three days. Those of us who were not dead pretended to be dead. We hid ourselves among the bodies.

The 2 nd question is: WHAT HAPPENED TO ME AT THAT TIME?

I went to the church with my family on the 12th of April. After two days, the killers came. They struck me with a machete on my hip. They thought I was dead. I was one of the children who hiding among the bodies. I could not walk.

The next day the killers came and threw stones at us to see who was still alive. They found about 10 or 15 of us. They made me crawl out of the church into the churchyard. They called us bad names. Snakes.

A man named Antoine, who was my neighbor, asked me WHY DIDN’T YOU DIE? I said nothing. He asked also WHERE IS YOUR BROTHER? I said nothing. I did not know what happened to my brother.

He had long knife and a club, and he struck me on my right shoulder, and on my head.

Then he made me put my right hand out on the ground, and he struck my hand again and
again with the club.

He thought I was dead, like the others. So the killers went away. It was raining, and I could not stand up, but I managed to crawl back into the church.

I was in the church with all the bodies for some more days when two Hutu people came into the church to see if there were any people still alive. These were people from my village, a brother and a sister. I knew them. They had been among the killers.

They said bad things to me. They called me names. They said we don’t have to kill you. You are going to die anyway.

But then they said, what do you want? I could not speak because my mouth and throat were dry. So I motioned with my hand, asking for water.

They came back later with water, but it was dirty, and I could not drink it. They also brought me a sweet potato. I tried to eat it, but I could not swallow.

Then they went away and never came back.

I was in the church for 43 days without food or water.

The 3 rd question is: HOW DID I SURVIVE AND GET BETTER?

I do not know the answer to this question.

I do not know why I did not die. But maybe God had a plan for me to live.

After being in the church for 43 days, the soldiers came, and a French man named Daniel, and they took me to the hospital.

At the hospital the nurses helped me. They treated my wounds. They gave me a new life.

I was in the hospital for 7 months, and then I was taken to an orphanage. There at the orphanage I saw my younger brother, Placide.

He had survived by running away from the church, and hiding in the bush.

Then our uncle came and found us, and he took us to his home. He and my auntie were like
my mama and papa.

I also met a man named Fergal Keane. He is a reporter for the BBC television company. He had seen me in 1994 when I was badly injured, and started making a video of me.

The video, called VALENTINA’S NIGHTMARE, showed who I was when they found me in May of 1994. It also showed me again in 1997, when Fergal came back, and was surprised to see that I was alive and strong.

When I went back to school I had the idea that one day I would become a soldier. I wanted to be a soldier because it was the soldiers who found me and helped me survive. But then I became afraid that I would be killed if I became a soldier.

So I had the idea of becoming a nun. I wanted to give to God. But I had nothing to give, so I wanted to give myself to God. But my uncle said NO. Finally I had the idea of becoming a nurse, because the nurses had helped me recover from my wounds.

The 4 th question is: WHO AM I TODAY? WHAT ARE MY HOPES AND DREAMS TODAY?

I still want to become a nurse; if not a nurse, then perhaps a counselor. When people ask me, “What do you want to do?” I say, “There is one thing above all. I want to help people. Many people in my country still suffer from TRAUMA. I am strong, so I want to help other people. That is the purpose of my life. TO HELP OTHERS.

In 2003 I met Glenn, who is now like a parent to me. Daddy Glenn helped me come to America, to learn English. I am now studying English at the University of New Hampshire. I hope to start my Bachelor of Arts program next September.

I hope that one day there will be a clinic in Rwanda called Valentine’s Clinic. It will be my gift to the people of my home country. It will help heal people, and also tell about my story.

People ask me if I want to return to Rwanda, and I say “Yes, of course. Rwanda is my home. But I like America too. I like being an international citizen.

Again, thank you for welcoming me to this church. Now that I am here with you, I hope you will call me your daughter. It makes me happy to have many mamas and papas. I like having a big family.

That was my short report. If you have questions, please come to the meeting after the service.



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Testimony of Valentina Izibagiza, SURF.

This is the testimony of Valentina Izibagiza, a survivor of the Rwandan genocide. She was 11 years old in 1994, at the beginning of the Rwandan genocide.

Before the genocide, I lived with my parents, four brothers and three sisters in Kibungo which is near Nyarubuye. We were a happy family and lucky children who didn't want for anything. I was third in the family, and I was in at school in primary three. We are Tutsi and we had many friends and neighbours who were Hutus.

On 7th April, the death of Rwanda's President Habyarimana was announced on the radio which greatly worried my parents. The following days, fires were burning in the neighbourhood, and the army came and killed some Tutsis in the local market place. Then we heard that the killing of Tutsis had begun in Rwanda's capital Kigali. On the 12th April, we heard that one of our Tutsi neighbours was attacked and murdered.

We knew what this meant for us Tutsis. Several people adults went to see the local mayor, Sylvester Gacumbitsi. He was a Hutu mayor but when he advised that Tutsis should go to the Catholic Church for sanctuary, everyone took him at his word. After all this, as my parents told me, this is where Tutsis found sanctuary, in previous attacks, in the 50s, 60s and 70s.

We arrived in the church on the 13th April to find that the priests had left so it was ‘everyone for himself.’ We had no food or water, but at least we had shelter and we were safe. Or so we thought. Now we know that around 3,000 Tutsis sought refuge in this church.

At 3pm on the afternoon of the 15th April we heard the sound of gun shots. Some people ran as soon as they heard the firing, but they were immediately gunned down and killed by the interahamwe, the Hutu militia who were very close. Soon the church was encircled, and the militia was shooting at everyone. Inside the church it was chaos as everyone ran around, screaming, trying to find a place to hide. Originally I'd been with my mother and brother but we became separated in the hysteria which ensued.

The church had lots of little rooms off the main church for storage and for the priests that lived there, so many people hid in here. Just as I'd crouched down in a corner, Gacumbitsi appeared. He had a microphone with him, and he shouted at us, "We are the interahmawe and we're about to eliminate every Tutsi so that in the future no-one will even know what a Tutsi looked like". He added, 'If anyone is hiding in this church because of a mistake, because really he or she is a Hutu, they should tell me now." After a few seconds a boy of about seven or eight stood up. "I am a Hutu," he said. Of course everyone knew that he wasn't Hutu. Two interahmwe soldiers ran forward and beat him with machetes so fiercely that his body went flying up in the air, and came down in several pieces. I sat watching all this terrified, as everyone screamed, begging to be saved.

I'd been hiding in a small cubby hole quite near the entrance of the church. I think it was so small that nobody bothered to check to see if anyone would be hiding there. Sometimes the militia would just take a child and throw it at the wall. Or if they were killing people with machetes they'd throw them so that some fell very close to and almost on top of me as I lay crouched hiding. Towards the end of the day when many people were killed more men came and stuck knives in those who lay wounded to make sure they were dead.

By this time, I was lying underneath several dead people, and they thought that I too was dead. That night all you could hear was people wailing. The survivors wandered around discovering who was dead and who the killers hadn't quite managed to kill. I crawled out from beneath some dead bodies, and tried to find my parents but I couldn't find anyone from my family. The next day, the killers returned and the same slaughter happened all over again. It's impossible to tell you how terrible it was.

Three days after the first killing had begun, on 16th April, another group of killers came, this time led by Antoine who had been our neighbour and a friend of our family. As Antoine and his companions passed me by, I held my breath. Later that day, when it seemed that almost everyone was dead, the interahamwe brought their dogs which began eating the dead. That was horrible. When the dogs came near me, I swiped at them and they went off to someone else. But some soldiers walked around checking exactly who was left, and they dragged out 15 people including me.

I knew one of the soldiers, whose name was Fredina. I begged him, "Can you find it in your heart to forgive me for being Tutsi? Please spare me." He spat at me, and said "Is this a hospital that I should forgive you? But I'm not going to smear myself with your blood. I'm going to ask someone else to kill you." He gestured to Antoine, our other neighbour.

"I'm going to kill you," he said, and I put up my hand to protect my head from his machete. Then he began smashing my hands with a clubbed stick, so that my fingers were broken and my skull was bleeding and the pain was terrible. After that he beat me some more on my shoulders and then again on my head, which was agonising and soon the pain was so terrible, that I knew no more. I had passed out.

I stayed among the dead in the Church at Nyarubuye for 43 days without food and only holy water or rain water. Now I'm not sure how I survived. I do remember that in the first few days I was in terrible pain, from the wounds on my head, but then I became like a log; it was as if I couldn't feel and I could barely move, except to crawl out to drink rain water.

During those days, the dogs would come round to eat people, but they became scared of me, so they never came into the room where I lay.

On the 26th May a man appeared who lived near the church. His name I now know was Caliste and when he caught sight of me, he wasn't sure whether I was dead or alive. He brought some food and threw it to me, and then he returned with a white journalist, a mzungo. He was a Frenchmen who'd been making a documentary, about the genocide and he'd been filming all the dead bodies at what I later learnt was the massacre of Nyarubuye when 3,000 people were killed.

Now I am 19, but I feel a lot older. I live with a cousin, who had gone to Kenya, before the war, but now he's returned, and I'm studying at school. Now the church at Nyarubuye has gone back to being a proper church, and I took part in Fergal Keane's film when he returned to find out what had happened to the survivors.

Last summer I went to Arusha to testify at the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR), where I could see Gacumbitsi. I knew him but of course he didn't know me. He looked fat and healthy and he wore a smart suit with a tie, and he looked contented. I was terrified, and then I felt very angry. That gave me the courage to speak and tell my story. He didn't seem remotely concerned at what I had to say. Then his lawyer asked me questions which made me both scared and furious. What right had they to question my credibility in this way, after what I had suffered? My testimony at the international court brought me no relief. All it did was to make me relive the horror. To me it didn't feel like justice; it just made me relive the horror of what happened in the Church at Nyarubuye.

ENDS

Sunday, 20 June 2010

Well it's Father's Day and everybody's wounded.

Up, Down, Appendices.

"Ten thousand men on a hill, some of ’m goin’ down, some of ’m gonna get killed."

Alton Lee WilsonAlton Lee WilsonAlton Lee WilsonAlton Lee WilsonAlton Lee WilsonAlton Lee WilsonAlton Lee WilsonAlton Lee WilsonAlton Lee Wilson
I'm going looking for his grave today, I helped carry him to it back ... 1981 sometime ... died just about on his birthday, I couldn't reach him by phone ... they found him a week later bloated and rotten, summertime ... I think that last picture is some kind of bullshit corporate honour - 50 years on the job maybe it was, yeah, we had a piano in our house though I never learned to play,

if I had to say one thing it would be that he loved his wife and his wife loved him, with all their hearts, and if I had to say two I would add that he loved me and I loved him, the same way - with all out hearts, and three - he loved gardening, God bless him.

Floribert Chebeya BahizireFloribert Chebeya BahizireFloribert Chebeya BahizireFloribert Chebeya BahizireFloribert Chebeya BahizireFloribert Chebeya Bahizire was one of those who got killed, obviously courageous, probably stubborn as fuck, a husband and father ... this is about memory and honour and dignity today ...

Robert DziekanskiRobert Dziekanski wasn't a father as far as I know, and I haven't seen anything about his father, but he might have been a father if the RCMP hadn't murdered him, it's been almost three years now and last week Thomas Braidwood released his final report - and the RCMP carries on 'praised by faint damning'

Thomas BraidwoodThomas BraidwoodBraidwood is reported saying (here and here), "I think I was blunt enough, full enough, and hopefully accurate enough that those reading it can draw their own conclusions," all good I guess except I thought we had just kept him busy for two years and filled his jeans with cash exactly in order that he draw conclusions? wasn't that it?

Richard PeckRichard Peckthe muffle-mouth shit-head leader of the RCMP, William Elliott, goes on spinning and trying to spin, and now we await the results of yet another inquiry, this time by Richard Peck who has been assigned as 'special prosecutor' by Mike de Jong, the BC Attorney General, God knows when they will finally put these murderers behind bars, if ever? GOD DAMN THEM ALL!

not nice things to be saying on Sunday morning and all ...

all this delay might be construed as somehow reasonable if there had not been a video taken by Paul Pritchard which shows as clear as day exactly what the Mountie thugs did to him, we can only hope that Paul Pritchard eventually becomes a father.

and finally, Khattiya Sawasdipol / Seh Daeng, from Thailand, killed by government forces, and his grieving daughter:
Khattiya SawasdipolKhattiya SawasdipolKhattiya SawasdipolKhattiya SawasdipolKhattiya SawasdipolKhattiya SawasdipolKhattiya SawasdipolKhattiya SawasdipolKhattiya SawasdipolKhattiya SawasdipolKhattiya SawasdipolKhattiya SawasdipolKhattiya SawasdipolKhattiya SawasdipolKhattiya SawasdipolKhattiya Sawasdipol


Appendices:
1. Remembering Floribert Chebeya, Dave Peterson, Jun 11 2010.
2. Is depression a disease?, Leah McLaren, June 18 2010.
3. Talking therapies are more effective than Prozac-type drugs, says scientist, Hannah Devlin, June 14 2010.
4. Initial Severity and Antidepressant Benefits: A Meta-Analysis of Data Submitted to the Food and Drug Administration, Irving Kirsch1, February 26 2008.
5. RCMP officers to face second look at charges, Neal Hall, June 19 2010.
6. Piling up the negatives, Brian Hutchinson, June 19 2010.



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Remembering Floribert Chebeya, Dave Peterson, Jun 11 2010.

Floribert’s murder is an enormous outrage. He was undoubtedly Congo’s most prominent, committed, courageous human rights activist. From his early years when he won the Reebok Human Rights awards in 1992 for fighting the Mobutu dictatorship, through the national conference process, the civil war, the Laurent Kabila regime, the Congolese elections, and the current dispensation, which continues to deteriorate – Floribert persevered, finally paying the ultimate price for his vision of a free and democratic Congo. He should be remembered as one of Congo’s greatest freedom fighters, a leader of Africa’s democratic movement, and an international human rights giant. This is a terrible loss. His death must not be in vain. His life’s work must continue.

I first met Floribert about 20 years ago when he was visiting the U.S. and the Endowment made its first grant to the organization he led, Le Voix des Sans Voix, in 1991 for $31,289, “to support the VSV’s efforts to increase the understanding of and commitment to human rights and democracy in Zaire through a civic education program that includes a monthly bulletin, audiovisual materials, and public meetings.” It was the first grant NED made in Zaire, along with one to the Ligue Zairois des Droits de l’Homme, which folded a few years later. But VSV carried on and has continued to receive NED support ever since, one of a small elite. NED’s program in Congo is now our largest in Africa, and there can be no question that Floribert paved the way and set the standard for all that followed.

Floribert was both gentle and fierce. His small stature, soft voice, thick glasses and warm smile belied the toughness and determination that landed him in and out of detention on multiple occasions, and that elevated him to be the widely acknowledged leader of Congo’s human rights movement in networks such as Droits de l’Homme Maintentant, and mentor to scores of human rights NGOs across the country. When the pressure and threats became too great, Floribert would send his wife and children across the river to Brazzaville, but he stayed behind in Kinshasa to continue his work. He lived modestly, and if he had political ambitions, he never pursued them. His family had to move from time to time for security reasons, but the occasions when I was honored to have dinner at his home were filled with the love and warmth of his devoted wife and children. When he spoke before mass audiences his eloquence and passion were captivating, but unlike so many other tribunes of the people, his integrity was incorruptible, he never lost his connection with the Congolese people whose voice he had become. I sat with him once as he interviewed an alleged recent victim of human rights abuse. He was gentle, yet probing, and rather than rushing to use her as a convenient weapon against the authorities, determined that her case was doubtful, but he promised to follow up with her later. He and the staff of VSV investigated and sought redress for hundreds of such cases.

Floribert was a realist. He understood politics. But he never sacrificed principles. He was as unafraid to denounce American policies he saw as wrong as he was those of his own government. When most other Congolese, including some human rights advocates, were denouncing the Tutsis and Banyamulenge after the Rwandan invasion, Floribert defended the rights of innocent civilians who were targets of human rights abuse no matter what their ethnicity. He had enormous energy. Leading a committed team, Voix de Sans Voix has issued hundreds of press statements over the years, meticulously documenting human rights abuses and denouncing them. VSV has likewise held hundreds of workshops, training conferences, civic education events, and campaigns. Floribert undoubtedly inspired hundreds of activists throughout the country who still cite VSV for getting them off the ground, showing them how to do human rights work, and counseling them on strategy. He distributed his Reebok Human Rights Award among other civil society organizations rather than keeping it for himself or even his own organization. His impact on the human rights movement and the understanding and appreciation for democracy in Congo was profound.

Whether or not the gunman or the person who gave the orders is ever identified, we know who killed Floribert Chebeya. The Congolese political system has become increasingly repressive, human rights organizations are continually threatened, journalists have been murdered, the political opposition emasculated, and the rule of law flouted. In the east the vicious killings, looting, and mass rapes committed by the Congolese army continue unabated. The UN peacekeepers are being pressed to leave, and the prospects for any democratic elections in the future are fading. The Congolese people have lost one of their most ardent defenders. Floribert will be remembered among the pantheon of African martyrs and freedom fighters such as Patrice Lumumba, Steve Biko, and Tom Mboya. But those who committed this crime must not go unpunished. Floribert’s vision of a free and democratic Congo must be preserved. Floribert would have demanded no less.



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Is depression a disease?, Leah McLaren, June 18 2010.

Big Pharma says yes, but others aren't so sure

‘It's all in your head” isn't something a chronically depressed person likes to hear. In the age of Prozac, when adjusting your serotonin level is as normal as checking the oil in your car, it seems unhelpful to suggest that someone might think their way into – or out of – a disease of the mind.

And yet depression is all in our heads. Where else would it be? The real question, still hotly debated in the scientific community, is whether its cause is chemical and ultimately curable (good news for Big Pharma) or something far more complex (good news for poets and pot-smoking students of existential philosophy).

There is no doubt that depression exists. Inexplicable sadness – or “melancholia,” as it was historically known – has been with us since Hippocrates conceived his famous oath. But a groundbreaking new study has found that not only is depression affected by the way we think about it, so too is its cure.

Last week Irving Kirsch, a professor at the University of Hull in the U.K., presented a study that found Prozac and its ilk are no more effective than placebos in treating depression. In his view, there is no substantial link between serotonin – the brain chemical that antidepressants are supposed to regulate – and chronic depression.

It's a controversial study – one that many members of the psychiatric community reject out of hand – but it also raises a nagging question about depression: How did it come to be recognized as a disease in the first place?

Like Hirsch, psychologist and writer Gary Greenberg is part of a growing number of psychiatric professionals who have begun to publicly question the underpinnings of popular thinking on depression.

His recent book, Manufacturing Depression, debunks the prevailing notion that depression is a disease and anti-depressants the long-awaited cure.

In his view, the game is rigged. As he told me in a phone interview, “the disease was invented to justify the cure.”

Greenberg sums up the history of modern depression like this: In the 1950s, doctors researching drugs for unrelated illnesses discovered that certain substances made people feel high. They didn't know why or how, just that they'd struck oil. These psychoactive drugs were marketed as mood enhancers and by the 1960s minor tranquilizers like Valium and Librium were routinely prescribed to people who these days would likely be classified as clinically depressed. Once the market was established, the race was on to develop the perfect mood-elevating pill. At the same time, pharmaceutical companies began to search for a way to increase the market share. An executive at the U.S. drug company Merck had a brilliant idea – why not broaden the diagnostic criteria for depression in order to sell more people the drugs? They recruited a doctor to write a book entitled Recognizing the Depressed Patient, which was then distributed to some 50,000 doctors around the country. The strategy was a resounding success and stands as an early triumph of viral marketing. And the script in that book is the same criteria doctors today use to determine whether a patient qualifies for anti-depressants and is, by extension, “chemically imbalanced.”

In his own book, Greenberg participates in a clinical trial himself, signing up first as a minor depressive (for which he believes himself qualified) and later getting upgraded to major depressive simply by answering the questions honestly.

As a clinician he takes issue with the methodology used to determine depression. He points out that answering “yes” to questions like “Have you been feeling depressed lately?” and “Do you ever wonder if life is worth living?” may be evidence that you are a Prozac candidate or simply a natural response to watching the latest news on the BP oil spill.

“With clinical depression, the symptoms justify the disease,” he says. “There's an infinite regress and no bottom. Don't forget they used to be able to scientifically ‘diagnose' homosexuality the same way.”

As a practising psychologist, Greenberg knows the dirty truth about anti-depressants – that the theory on which their effectiveness is based is just that: a theory. The notion of chemical imbalance has never been proven and remains highly controversial. It is, according to Greenberg, “a myth, which, like all great myths, gathers together the central beliefs and ethos of a society.” In this case, it's the belief in magic-bullet medicine combined with the prevalence of materialism (i.e. the belief that psychological truths can be located in the physical brain).

And of course, it's all very convenient for Big Pharma, which makes billions curing people of a disease that may not exist. Last year in Canada alone, almost 35-million prescriptions were filled for anti-depressants, at a total cost of over $1.5-billion.

This is not to say that Greenberg agrees with Kirsch. “His interpretation of the effects of consciousness-altering drugs doesn't really add up. Frankly I don't think he's taken many of them.”

While Greenberg believes depression is over-diagnosed and anti-depressants are over-prescribed, he sees nothing wrong with experimenting with pharmaceuticals in order to alleviate sadness or mental suffering, which are of course as old as human consciousness itself. He just wishes we would understand that that's what we're doing, rather than convincing ourselves we're suffering from a mental illness and in need of a cure. Such behaviour brings to mind my temperance worker grandmother who used to allow herself a thimble of whisky every night on the grounds that her doctor had prescribed it as “medicine.”

“When we call a form of suffering an illness, we are saying it deserves recognition and resources. In this case, unfortunately, the kind of resources it commands are money for drugs. What if we could use those resources for other things – say, to figure out ways to make our society less isolating, less individualistic?”

There's no question where Greenberg lands on the scale between Big Pharma and the poets.

As for me, I'd rather get on with life. And by that I mean staring at the wall and contemplating whether it's actually worth living.



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Talking therapies are more effective than Prozac-type drugs, says scientist, Hannah Devlin, June 14 2010.



Antidepressants of the Prozac type are no better than a placebo, a leading psychologist has claimed. According to Irving Kirsch, the evidence is overwhelming that there is no link between depression and serotonin, the brain chemical that such drugs are supposed to affect.

Practising psychiatrists, however, say that it would be disastrous to use stricter criteria for the prescription of antidepressants on the basis of Professor Kirsch’s research findings. “Be very careful what you advise, because we in the surgeries will be left to pick up the pieces,” said Amjad Uppal, a consultant psychiatrist for the Gloucestershire NHS Trust.

Last year in England the NHS issued 39 million prescriptions to treat depression, more than half being for “selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor” (SSRI) drugs. Three million people took antidepressants daily. Antidepressants including Prozac and the newer generation of SSRIs, such as Seroxat, are taken to increase the level of serotonin in the brain.

Professor Kirsch argued that they worked through the placebo effect — patients expect to be made to feel better — and said that “talking treatments” such as cognitive behavioural therapy were more effective in the long term.

“Although the chemical-imbalance theory is often presented as if it were fact, it is actually a controversial hypothesis,” he said. “This is about as close as a theory gets in science to being disproven by the evidence.”

Others maintain that antidepressants do have an active biochemical influence. “We do not fully understand how these drugs work, but there is evidence that they influence the number of neurons and the connections between neurons. You can’t draw conclusions about this because of the nature of the study,” said Hamish McAllister- Williams, a consultant psychiatrist and psychopharmacologist at Newcastle University.

He said that depression was a dangerous illness, noting that sufferers were at as high a risk of a heart attack as those who smoked 20 cigarettes a day.

Dr McAllister-Williams believed that “at least a proportion” of the effect of the drugs was “due to active ingredients, but either way they work and we really need an effective treatment”. Dr Uppal said: “I have a very high threshold for prescribing antidepressants, but there’s no doubt in my mind they work. Research studies are artificial and do not capture the difference between effectiveness and efficacy.”

Professor Kirsch’s research, presented at The Times Cheltenham Science Festival, shows that a new drug, tianeptine, is just as effective as SSRIs in treating depression. Tianeptine, which is a serotonin reuptake enhancer, actually decreases the level of the chemical.

In comparisons of tianeptine with SSRIs and the earlier tricyclic antidepressants, the three produced virtually identical response rates: 63 per cent of patients responded to tianeptine, 62 per cent to SSRIs and 65 per cent to tricyclics. If drugs having three different effects on serotonin brought similar benefits, these could not be due to their specific chemical activity, Professor Kirsch said. “The idea that the neurotransmitter serotonin is a causal factor in depression is wrong.”



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Initial Severity and Antidepressant Benefits: A Meta-Analysis of Data Submitted to the Food and Drug Administration, Irving Kirsch1, Brett J. Deacon, Tania B. Huedo-Medina, Alan Scoboria, Thomas J. Moore, Blair T. Johnson, February 26 2008.

Kirsch and colleagues show that, in antidepressant trials, there is a greater difference in efficacy between drug and placebo amongst more severely depressed patients. However, this difference seems to result from a poorer response to placebo amongst more depressed patients.

Abstract

Background:
Meta-analyses of antidepressant medications have reported only modest benefits over placebo treatment, and when unpublished trial data are included, the benefit falls below accepted criteria for clinical significance. Yet, the efficacy of the antidepressants may also depend on the severity of initial depression scores. The purpose of this analysis is to establish the relation of baseline severity and antidepressant efficacy using a relevant dataset of published and unpublished clinical trials.

Methods and Findings:
We obtained data on all clinical trials submitted to the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for the licensing of the four new-generation antidepressants for which full datasets were available. We then used meta-analytic techniques to assess linear and quadratic effects of initial severity on improvement scores for drug and placebo groups and on drug–placebo difference scores. Drug–placebo differences increased as a function of initial severity, rising from virtually no difference at moderate levels of initial depression to a relatively small difference for patients with very severe depression, reaching conventional criteria for clinical significance only for patients at the upper end of the very severely depressed category. Meta-regression analyses indicated that the relation of baseline severity and improvement was curvilinear in drug groups and showed a strong, negative linear component in placebo groups.

Conclusions:
Drug–placebo differences in antidepressant efficacy increase as a function of baseline severity, but are relatively small even for severely depressed patients. The relationship between initial severity and antidepressant efficacy is attributable to decreased responsiveness to placebo among very severely depressed patients, rather than to increased responsiveness to medication.



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RCMP officers to face second look at charges, Neal Hall, June 19 2010.

Attorney-General makes announcement after release of final report into Robert Dziekanski's death

A special prosecutor will take a second look at charges against four RCMP officers after the Braidwood inquiry found the Taser used on Robert Dziekanski in 2007 was an unnecessary use of force, B.C.'s attorney-general announced Friday.

In addition, the province will establish, within a year, an independent civilian agency to investigate police-related deaths and serious injuries. The agency, to be led by a civilian who has never worked for police, will be called the Independent Investigations Office (IIO) and will have the authority to investigate the RCMP and municipal police.

Attorney-General Mike de Jong made the announcement Friday, minutes after the release of inquiry commissioner Thomas Braidwood's bluntly worded final report.

"Moving to an IIO model will help prevent in future what played out during the inquiry and is highlighted in the commission's report -- a number of discrepancies between what RCMP officers told investigators in 2008 and what came out at the inquiry," de Jong said.

In his report, Braidwood concluded the "shameful conduct" of the officers was not justified.

The retired appeal-court judge condemned the actions of the four RCMP officers, who responded to a 911 call reporting the presence of a violent drunk at Vancouver International Airport after 1:30 a.m. on Oct. 14, 2007. (An autopsy later determined he had no alcohol or drugs in his system.)

Braidwood found the officers mishandled the situation by approaching Dziekanski as though they were dealing with a pub brawl instead of a distraught and exhausted visitor, who had spent more than 10 hours after arriving from Poland unsuccessfully trying to find his mother at the airport.

One of the officers repeatedly shocked Dziekanski with a Taser, even after he fell to the floor writhing in pain.

Dziekanski, 40, died minutes after police handcuffed his hands behind his back.

His mother, Zofia Cisowski, waited at the airport for more than seven hours, but finally returned to her Kamloops home when told by customs officials that her son could not be found.

Dziekanski was hoping to start a new life in Canada. He spoke no English and had never been on a plane before.

Braidwood found the four officers should have used their skills and training to de-escalate the situation rather than deploying the stun gun five times. Police contact with Dziekanski lasted only 75 seconds, he pointed out.

Braidwood quoted Dziekanski's final words, spoken in Polish: "Leave me alone. Did you become stupid? Have you gone insane? Why?"

The 459-page report is titled Why? The Robert Dziekanski Tragedy.

"In my view, Const. [Kwesi] Millington was not justified in deploying the weapon against Mr. Dziekanski, given the totality of the circumstances he was facing at the time," Braidwood concluded in his report.

"Similarly, Cpl. [Benjamin] Robinson was not justified in instructing him to deploy the weapon."

Braidwood dismissed as false the officers' claims that they were forced to wrestle Dziekanski to the ground, noting that he'd fallen after the first shock.

"The initial claims by all four officers that they wrestled Mr. Dziekanski to the ground were untrue," said the report. "In my view they were deliberate misrepresentations, made for the purpose of justifying their actions."

The incident was captured on an amateur video that was posted on YouTube, prompting an international public outcry because the video showed a markedly different scenario than the police version of events. The officers testified at the inquiry that they believed Dziekanski intended to attack because he had a stapler in his hand.

But Braidwood dismissed their testimony, saying, "I do not believe that either of these officers honestly perceived that Mr. Dziekanski was intending to attack them or the other officers."

The inquiry commissioner found Dziekanski was compliant with police commands and did not brandish the stapler as a weapon.

"Mr. Dziekanski did not bring this on himself," Braidwood told reporters Friday.

Braidwood was asked by a reporter why he stopped short of calling the RCMP officers' actions misconduct.

"I think I was blunt enough, full enough, and hopefully accurate enough that those reading it can draw their own conclusions," he explained.

"This tragic case is, at its heart, the story of shameful conduct of a few officers. It ought not to reflect unfairly on the many thousands of RCMP and other police officers who have, through years of public service, protected our communities and earned a well-deserved reputation in doing so."

The attorney-general, however, said minutes later: "There was misconduct here and it reflects badly. The response here was way out of proportion to what was warranted."

De Jong credited Braidwood for doing "a tremendous job of unravelling and probing all the circumstances surrounding the tragic death.... B.C. agrees with the intent, principle and purpose of each of the report's recommendations."

De Jong also praised Dziekanski's mother for attending Friday's news conference. "You are a brave lady and I think British Columbians and Canadians have seen that firsthand. I thank you for being here," he said.

Cisowski said she was pleased by the attorney-general's appointment of a special prosecutor to review whether charges should be laid.

The Criminal Justice Branch announced Friday that senior Vancouver criminal lawyer Richard Peck has been appointed as special prosecutor.

RCMP Commissioner William Elliot admitted Friday to reporters in Vancouver that the force's handling of the fatal incident "failed at many levels" and the events should have unfolded differently.

"It is clear our policies and training in place at the time were deficient," he told reporters. "We acknowledge that the actions of our members who dealt with Mr. Dziekanski also fell short."

He went on to outline all the changes the RCMP has made since the incident, in training, policy and procedures involving the use of force and Taser use.

Elliot began his news conference by offering Dziekanski's mother "our sincere condolences on the death of her son Robert and to apologize unconditionally for the role the RCMP, including individual members of the RCMP, played in his tragic death."

A Vancouver Sun reporter asked why the RCMP didn't apologize when the citizen's video was released, but instead waited more than two years.

"That's a very good question," Elliot said.

"I wish we would have offered an apology to Mrs. Cisowski a lot sooner than we did."

He said the force will be revisiting some of the decisions made at the time.

Elliot admitted that the RCMP "messed up," making mistakes and errors in judgment that undermined public confidence in the force: "Canadians will not support us when they don't trust us."

He said the RCMP welcomed the B.C. government's plan to establish a civilian agency and will cooperate with a special prosecutor appointed to review the original Crown decision not to charge the four Mounties.

Elliot said one of the officers has been suspended for an unrelated incident and the other three have been assigned to administrative duties. Vancouver RCMP Insp. Tim Shields, asked if it was true that three of the officers were on medical leave, said he could not comment.

Robinson has been charged with obstruction of justice for his involvement in an accident in Delta in 2008 that killed motorcyclist Orion Hutchinson, 21.

Delta police recommended Robinson be charged with impaired driving, but the Crown said there was insufficient evidence. The officer left the accident scene with his two children and went to his nearby home, where he claimed he had a couple of shots of vodka.


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Piling up the negatives, Brian Hutchinson, June 19 2010.

It was the first question put to Thomas Braidwood at his news conference yesterday, and the most significant. The nut of it lay in the preamble, rather than in the query itself. Judge Braidwood had just released his meticulously constructed and damning 460-page analysis of events leading to the death of Polish immigrant Robert Dziekanski.

"You found misconduct," declared Global television reporter John Daly, before getting to the gist of his question, which I'll confess I didn't quite catch. I had stopped listening and was looking for Judge Braidwood's reaction instead.

Seconds earlier, Judge Braidwood stopped half-an-inch short of calling the four RCMP members involved in the 2007 Vancouver airport tragedy incompetents, liars and thugs. But he hadn't alleged "misconduct" on their part. And nowhere does the word "misconduct" appear in his report.

Yet the retired judge didn't correct Mr. Daly. Why not?

Last year, his commission of inquiry counsel fought the four RCMP officers all the way to the B.C. Appeal Court to protect his authority to determine misconduct. A finding of misconduct would surely influence any future prosecution, should one ever come. But Judge Braidwood didn't go that far.

Why is that, another reporter pressed.

"I think I was blunt enough, full enough, and hopefully accurate enough that those reading it can draw their own conclusions," Judge Braidwood replied.

This is an eminent jurist who doesn't make mistakes. Judge Braidwood chooses his words carefully, deliberately. In those exchanges yesterday, he seemed to be playing a bit coy. He allowed to pass suggestions that there was misconduct, without making them himself. I think he had realized at some point, preparing his report, that he didn't need to. The report would be strong enough. After his press conference yesterday, B.C. Attorney-General Mike de Jong announced the appointment of a special prosecutor, Richard Peck, to consider charges against the four officers. The special prosecutor will start with the full Braidwood report, and go from there.

The special prosecutor will read how the RCMP constable who zapped Mr. Dziekanski five times with his Taser "deliberately misrepresented" the incident in his police report. To the same passage--indeed, the same sentence -- Judge Braidwood added the words "overstated," "prejudicial" and "self-serving." That's some pretty strong stuff.

There's his description of the senior officer's "refusal" to remove handcuffs from Mr. Dziekanski as the 40-year-old lay dying on the airport floor, post-Tasering, post-police dog pile. This refusal was "unjustified," wrote Judge Braidwood.

There's much more. The negatives pile up. "Unprofessional," wrote Judge Braidwood. "Factually inaccurate." "Shameful conduct by a few officers."

The judge also made it clear yesterday that the public should not focus only on missteps made by the four officers. While he did not have the authority to ascribe blame or recommend charges, he was certainly able to make findings of fact and point fingers wherever warranted.

He came down hard on the Canada Border Services Agency, in particular on one of its Vancouver airport officers. Robert Dziekanski's death could have been avoided had the CBSA worked differently than it did on that night in October 2007.

Mr. Dziekanski arrived at YVR from Poland "fatigued, confused and stressed," writes Judge Braidwood. "He was dishevelled and sweating profusely around the face. I do not find any of this remarkable, given his fear of flying, the long trip and his inability to speak English."

After clearing customs and immigration, Mr. Dziekanski wandered inside the airport's international arrivals area for hours.

"One would think that the Canada Border Services Agency would want, for its own security purposes, to maintain tighter control than this on the movements of arriving passengers," Judge Braidwood writes in his report. "The fact that Mr. Dziekanski went unnoticed for more than five hours points to inadequate services to ensure that passengers move through the customs and immigration processes in an orderly and prompt manner."

Mr. Dziekanski's mother, Zofia Cisowski, waited with a friend in the airport's public meet and greet area. Her son had arrived from Poland and was still inside the customs zone, she was sure. They managed to speak via telephone to a CBSA officer inside, Tina Zadravec; she told them she could not find a man matching Mr. Dziekanski's description. She'd looked. She refused their offer to take down Mr. Dziekanski's name and run it through a flight manifest. But this would have confirmed that Mr. Dziekanski had indeed landed.

As Judge Braidwood concluded, "it was ill-considered and cavalier for her, not having taken those steps, to advise [Ms. Cisowski's friend] that in all certainty Mr. Dziekanski was not there and that they might as well go home."

They went home. "Had they been told to wait outside, [Mr. Dziekanski] would be alive today," Judge Braidwood said yesterday.

Ms. Zadravec, the CBSA officer, would later spot Mr. Dziekanski seated in a chair. She told police weeks later that she thought he might have been drunk. Other witnesses said the same. But Mr. Dziekanski wasn't drunk. He did become agitated. He would soon be dead.

Judge Braidwood made eight recommendations in all. Most, if not all, likely will be implemented. And while his work is over, this RCMP business isn't. Judge Braidwood could have gone further, but the door's been left open a crack.