The Braidwood inquiry was thrown into an uproar today after a Department of Justice lawyer, representing the RCMP, made a late disclosure of an email exchange between two senior RCMP officers just as closing submissions were about to begin. The BCCLA is a participant at the inquiry.

Grace Pastine, Litigation Director: “The issues raised by the email are highly relevant and go to the very core of the inquiry’s mandate. The public deserves a full explanation of the email’s contents and its drafting, and significantly, why it wasn’t disclosed many months ago. The public’s confidence in the RCMP has been shaken and we need assurances that the RCMP is disclosing all relevant materials.”

Inquiry Commissioner Thomas Braidwood said that he was “appalled” that the RCMP had not disclosed the information months ago, and ordered that the inquiry be postponed so that the contents of the email could be investigated. He stated that further evidentiary hearings may be required.

The email was an exchange between the two most senior officers in the “E Division” of the RCMP, and suggests that the four RCMP officers went into the airport planning to taser Mr. Dziekanski before they even saw him. At the inquiry, the four officers denied that they had discussed a plan in advance of arriving at the airport. The email, however, suggests that one or more of the officers told their superiors around the time of the incident the exact opposite. The email also suggests that they may have contemplated using the taser not in accordance with RCMP policy and training.

Commission counsel Art Vertlieb, who outlined the e-mail suggested that it may be necessary to recall the four officers to testify again. The senior RCMP officers involved in the email exchange may have to testify as well. The e-mail, written on Nov. 5, 2007, was disclosed only this week by the federal Justice Department to commission counsel.

Grace Pastine, Litigation Director: “The late disclosure of this document has disrupted months of work. We’re shocked that the email wasn’t disclosed to the commission and participants months ago, and call upon the RCMP to provide the public with complete assurances that full disclosure has been made. The public has the right to know why the RCMP did not produce the email until after the four officers testified.”

Media Contact:
Grace Pastine, Litigation Director, 778-241-7183