A man who died after being shot with a Taser at Vancouver airport last month spent more than six hours in a secure area controlled by the Canada Border Services Agency before he was granted landed immigrant status.

Larry Berg, CEO of the Vancouver Airport Authority, points to a map showing the customs area controlled by the Canada Border Services Agency.
(CBC)

Larry Berg, president and CEO of the Vancouver Airport Authority, spoke publicly for the first time Friday about the death of 40-year-old Robert Dziekanski.

Berg told CBC Radio that the Polish immigrant arrived at the airport on a flight from Europe around 4 p.m. PT on Oct. 13, and cleared the passport check shortly after.

He said it is still unclear why Dziekanski waited 6½ hours in a secure area controlled by the Canada Border Services Agency near the luggage carousel before proceeding to the second stage of immigration.

The CBSA declined to comment, citing an ongoing investigation of the case.

At around 10:30 p.m., Dziekanski moved on and presented himself at the secondary customs check, where he was granted landed immigrant status at 12:30 a.m., Berg said.

Zofia Cisowski with her son Robert Dziekanski in Poland, before she immigrated to Canada.
(Global)

Dziekanski then "went out into the public area, where the ultimate tragedy occurred," he said.

Witnesses have told CBC News that Dziekanski appeared confused and agitated when they saw him at 1 a.m.

Police arrived shortly after and have said they shot him twice with a Taser. He died minutes later. The cause of death has yet to be determined.

Berg said at no time did anyone employed by the Airport Authority have any contact with Dziekanski.

Customs area under CBSA control

The customs area, controlled by the border services agency, can have 15,000 people pass through in a single day and Berg said he could understand how a person could be overlooked by CBSA personnel for several hours.

The area is not under the direct control of the Airport Authority or its security personnel, said Berg, and both the entrance and exit are controlled by CBSA.

"We deliberately stay out of that area," said Berg.

Berg said 14 security cameras monitor the area, and the footage from those cameras has been turned over to investigators.

Zofia Cisowski says she spent nine hours at the Vancouver airport on Oct. 14 waiting for her son to arrive and begin his new life in Canada as an immigrant.
(CBC)

The CEO of the Airport Authority also responded to concerns raised about the public address system at the airport.

Dziekanski's mother, Zofia Cisowski, has told CBC News that airport personnel offered her no assistance, despite repeated requests to help her make contact with her son while she waited for several hours in the arrivals area.

"The rule between the Airport Authority and the Canada Border Services Agency is that we do not communicate in there directly with passengers," said Berg.

"It would only be under emergency conditions that we would communicate in any sort of public address system," he added.  

He said Cisowski was directed by airport personnel to the CBSA offices, where she was told they they had no information on Dziekanski's whereabouts, despite the fact that he had cleared the primary passport check at customs shortly after his arrival.

The airport authority does not have access to flight manifests, Berg said, and therefore cannot confirm who has arrived or who is in the customs area.

Berg also said the airport has interpretive services in the arrival area, but they primarily handle French, German and Asian languages. Dziekanski only spoke Polish, his mother has said.

CBSA has its own translation service in the customs area, Berg said, and those were used to help Dziekanski process his immigration application.

When asked why it has taken the Airport Authority three weeks to respond to media requests for details of Dziekanski's final hours, Berg said his primary concern has been co-operating with the police and coroner's office, who are conducting investigations into Dziekanski's death.

He said the airport is conducting its own internal review to determine what "fundamental underlying conditions" may have contributed to the tragedy.

The lawyer hired by Dziekanski's mother, Walter Kosteckyj, said Berg's account of the events that night has some omissions.

Dziekanski was unable to claim his luggage after clearing the initial CBSA passport check, Kosteckyj said, because it was being held for him by the airline in another area.