The award-winning journalist Curt Petrovich discusses his new book Blamed and Broken: The Mounties and the Death of Robert Dziekanski (Dundurn, 2019), with Joseph Planta.

Blamed and Broken: The Mounties and the Death of Robert Dziekanski by Curt Petrovich (Dundurn, 2019). Click to buy this book from Amazon.ca: Blamed and Broken

Text of introduction by Joseph Planta:

I am Planta: On the Line, in Vancouver, British Columbia, at TheCommentary.ca.

Curt Petrovich joins me now. He has just published a remarkable book Blamed and Broken: The Mounties and the Death of Robert Dziekanski. It is a riveting, necessary book. In October 2007, Dziekanski arrived at Vancouver’s International Airport hoping to start a new life from his native Poland. He languishes in the airport for several hours by the baggage claim, separated by glass from where the public waits. Dziekanski doesn’t go out because he’s expecting his mother, while she can’t go into that part of the airport. After several hours, he is acting erratically, smashing things inside the terminal, unable to express in English what he wants or needs. Soon the RCMP are called in, and he is tasered. Another passenger at the airport pulls out a video camera and tapes the situation, and soon the video becomes ubiquitous and soon conclusions are drawn as to who’s at fault, and worse. In this riveting book, Mr. Petrovich goes beyond the outrage, at home and abroad, over the use of force, about the sown narratives about Dziekanski, the four officers involved, to how more than one person died in 2007, how the lives of so many have been upended, and how regulation and procedures might have changed in the over eleven years since. And Curt through his reporting, and now the writing of this book, looks at the millions of dollars spent on an inquiry, and imperfect prosecutions. Curt Petrovich is an investigative journalist with over three decades of experience reporting on national and international stories for the CBC. He has followed the Robert Dziekanski matter since that fateful night 14 October 2007. The Twitter handle is @RetroCanada, and the website for more is at www.curtpetrovich.ca. The book is published by Dundurn. Please welcome to the Planta: On the Line program, Curt Petrovich; Mr. Petrovich, good morning.

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