Taser video halts teens' B.C. travel plans
Last Updated: Tuesday, November 20, 2007 | 7:49 AM PT
CBC News
Two teenage girls from Chile have cancelled a trip to Canada after watching a video of the RCMP shocking Robert Dziekanski with a stun gun.
Claudia Connelly says her twin 14-year-old nieces from Chile had planned to spend their school break in the southern B.C. Interior town of Nakusp next month, but they decided to cancel their visit after watching the Dziekanski video online.
"They expressed to me that they are afraid of coming because they don't speak English and they're worried about what will happen if they cannot find me," Connelly said.
Connelly tried to persuade her sister and nieces that Canada is safe, but she said she understands why someone who doesn't speak English would be afraid to fly into the Vancouver airport after watching what happened to Dziekanski when he arrived.
The video, released to the public on Wednesday, shows the final moments of Dziekanski's life. The Polish immigrant, who did not speak English and who was confused and agitated at the time, died shortly after RCMP stunned him at least twice with a Taser in the airport's international arrivals area.
His mother, Zofia Cisowski, told CBC News that airport personnel refused her repeated requests for help contacting her son, who spent more than 10 hours in the airport customs hall waiting for her before the incident.
Rather than checking for Dziekanski, Cisowski said airport personnel told her he was not there and she should go home.
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