The Supreme Court of Canada (SCC) has dismissed the appeals of Benjamin Robinson and Kwesi Millington, who were found guilty of perjury during an inquiry into the Taser death of Robert Dziekanski at Vancouver International Airport 10 years ago.
The disgraced RCMP officers had appealed their B.C. Supreme Court convictions at the B.C Court of Appeal, where they were not granted new trials. The SCC was their last stop and on Monday they were informed by the court their convictions would stand. The SCC did not immediately release details of the judgement online.
The lower court found Millington and Robinson colluded to concoct a story surrounding that night that was factually false.
On appeal, Robinson argued B.C. Supreme Court Justice Nathan Smith’s verdict was unreasonable because guilt was not the only reasonable inference available on the evidence and that the judge had “misapprehended” the evidence about Dziekanski being taken to the ground and whether the victim was swinging a stapler at the time.
But in her written reasons, B.C. Court of Appeal Justice Mary Newbury found that Smith’s findings were not unreasonable.
The SCC noted in its pre-hearing agenda: “It was alleged that [Robinson] lied at the inquiry about why his initial statement to investigators was inaccurate. It was also alleged that he lied about discussing the details of the incident with the other officers before making the statement to investigators. The appellant and [Millington] were convicted.”
On Oct. 13, 2007, Millington, Robinson and other officers used a Taser on Dziekanski after he appeared unruly and disoriented in the international arrivals exit area. As it turned out, Dziekanski could not speak English and simply needed to be told where to go.
