The mother of Robert Dziekanski, whose death after a confrontation with Richmond Mounties at YVR in 2007 led to a public inquiry, has died in Poland.
A friend of the family confirmed the death of Zofia Cisowski, who had lived in B.C., mostly in Kamloops, since 1999.
Cisowski, 73, is reported to have suffered two strokes in her home country on Nov. 18, during her annual visit.
She will reportedly be buried in the same grave as her only son, Dziekanski, who died on Oct. 14, 2007 after getting lost inside the airport for 10 hours.
Dziekanski, 40 – who had never travelled outside Poland before and did not speak English – was moving to Canada to live with his mother.
Agitated and unable to reach the public side of the airport, Dziekanski was eventually confronted by four Richmond RCMP officers.
During an outburst from Dziekanski, one of the Mounties used a Taser to subdue him, jolting him five times.
In the days after his death, the RCMP released statements about how police responded to the distraught Dziekanski. But those details were disproved by a cellphone video recorded by one of the few people in the airport during the late-night confrontation.
His mother’s emotional demands for justice led to a 2010 public inquiry, where it was determined that the officers' decisions were wrong and that they had misrepresented their actions to the inquiry, leading to perjury charges.
Although two were cleared of perjury at trial, Kwesi Millington, the officer who used the Taser, and Benjamin (Monty) Robinson, the ranking officer at the scene, received jail terms.
Millington was handed a 30-month sentence while Robinson received a two-year term, one year of probation and 240 hours of community service.
Both men appealed but the Supreme Court of Canada upheld the convictions.
With files from The Canadian Press
