VANCOUVER -- An e-mail found last week that sheds light on possible misconduct by senior RCMP officers has thrown the Braidwood inquiry into the death of Polish immigrant Robert Dziekanski into disarray.

The e-mail, sent by RCMP Chief Supt. Dick Bent to RCMP deputy commissioner Al Macintyre, suggests for the first time that the four Mounties who responded to a call at the airport planned to use a Taser against Mr. Dziekanski -- contrary to what they testified during the inquiry.

Mr. Dziekanski, 40, died after being hit five times with a Taser by RCMP officers in October, 2007.

The e-mail, dated Nov. 5, 2007, said: “Finally, spoke to Wayne [Rideout, the former commanding officer in charge of investigating Mr. Dziekanski’s death] and he indicated that the members did not articulate that they saw the symptoms of excited delirium, but instead had discussed the response en route and decided that if he did not comply that they would go to CEW [conducted energy weapon].

“He has asked investigators for a synopsis and should have it by noon tomorrow.”

Lawyer Helen Roberts, who represents the RCMP, broke into tears as she told retired judge Thomas Braidwood that her office received the e-mail in late April but never opened the CD for the document files until last week.

“I do say, it was by oversight that this occurred,” she said. “Canada continues, as it has all along, to fully support the work of this commission.”

Ms. Roberts said Bent was mistaken in his e-mail and that the officers did not formulate a plan to use the Taser as soon as possible.

“As a result of [our office’s discovery] of this e-mail ... the IHIT [Integrated Homicide Investigation Team] file has been searched and there is no evidence in the IHIT file that the members formulated a plan to use the Taser prior to the encounter with Mr. Dziekanski,” Ms. Roberts explained.

“It is our conclusion from these interviews that Chief Supt. Bent must have misunderstood information provided to him by Supt. Rideout.”

The lawyers for the four RCMP officers said their clients deny they formulated a plan to Taser Mr. Dziekanski.

RCMP Commissioner William Elliott echoed Robert’s statement that the e-mail was not released to the inquiry due to an “oversight.”

“Unfortunately in an exercise of this magnitude, such an oversight can occur,” Mr. Elliott said in a news release Friday.

He said the RCMP will “continue to co-operate fully with the inquiry.”

Braidwood decided the e-mail will require new testimony, so he adjourned the inquiry until Sept. 22.

“I find the delay in disclosing this material to the commission to be appalling,” Mr. Braidwood said.

Commission counsel Art Vertlieb said the late disclosure of the e-mail as evidence had resulted in a “complete disruption of the process.”

“It’s a stunning turn of events,” Don Rosenbloom, the lawyer representing the government of Poland at the inquiry, told reporters after the commissioner ordered the adjournment.

“The documents that have just come to our attention include a critical e-mail from very high up in the RCMP chain of command, disclosing that the officers decided in a premeditated way, ‘en route’ to the scene, to use the Taser if Mr. Dziekanski did not comply.”

Mr. Rosenbloom said the 11th-hour disclosure “is totally inconsistent with testimony given under oath.”

Mr. Rosenbloom added the e-mail goes to the heart of the issue of police fabrication.

During the hearing, he said, “we were alleging they [the four Mounties involved in the airport incident] were fabricating their story.”

The inquiry was supposed to have ended its public hearings on Friday.

Mr. Dziekanski, who did not speak English, had been travelling for more than 24 hours when he died. He had been in the airport for more than nine hours, looking for his mother.

Vancouver Sun