Back in 2007, Robert Dziekanski, a Polish immigrant to Canada, reportedly became agitated and ‘aggressive’ after waiting nine hours at Vancouver International Airport to clear security.
The RCMP, which has jurisdiction at Vancouver International, responded. Four RCMP officers – a corporal and three constables – confronted Dziekanski.
As a result of the “interaction” with officers, Dziekanski died of a heart attack, which the coroner concluded was caused by repeated use of a conducted energy weapon, or taser.
All of the witness statements agreed that Dziekanski was handcuffed, pinned and tasered.
But there were enough disparities in the statements that a subsequent inquiry famously concluded that the officers had deliberately misrepresented their actions. The four faced charges of perjury and collusion.
Two of the officers, Cpl. Monty Robinson and Const. Kwesi Millington, were found guilty. Consts. Bill Bentley and Gerry Rundel were acquitted on the same charges and the same evidence.
Bentley and Millington were the guest speakers at Saturday’s meeting of the Innisfil Historical Society.
Bentley, who has resumed his duties with the RCMP in Ontario, was there to talk about the history, the training and the role of the RCMP as a national police force. He brought along his iconic “red serge” ceremonial uniform, with its badges, and the corporal’s stripes he has since earned.
Millington, who was sentenced to 30 months for perjury but has never ceased to protest his innocence, told the group, “I had to trade in that beautiful red serge for an orange jumpsuit.”
The RCMP has about 28,000 members, across Canada – 18,000 police officers, and about 10,000 civilian and support staff, noted Bentley.
“What does an RCMP officer do? Quite frankly, that depends on where you are posted,” he said.
The RCMP provides a federal police service, but also provincial, municipal and First Nations policing wherever it is required – except in Ontario and Quebec, which have their own provincial police services.
Nationally, the RCMP deals with terrorism threats, organized crime “generally in a plainclothes capacity,” provides protection to the prime minister and parliament, and to the judiciary, and works with local police “to get the job done and keep the public safe.”
On the local level, where they have jurisdiction, it is the RCMP that responds to 911 calls – like the call that came in from Vancouver International Airport, that night in 2007.
Bentley noted that it is the balance between economics and local control that can determine which areas are policed by the RCMP.
Until recently, RCMP were always the less expensive alternative to a municipal or provincial police service – with a lower range of pay, and a standard that permits a single officer to patrol in a cruiser. That may be changing; one month ago, Bentley noted, the RCMP unionized.
“My whole life, all I wanted to be was a police officer,” Bentley said.
After studying criminology at the University of Windsor, he spent the summer as a student working for the Border Agency at the Ambassador Bridge – and suddenly the RCMP became a viable option, and a way to continue the federal pension he had earned.
It isn’t easy to earn a place in the RCMP. After 18 months of “relentless testing and screening… to see if I was fit,” Bentley’s application was accepted, and he was invited to the RCMP Depot Academy in Regina, Sask.
For the applicants who give up their time and jobs to take the six months of training, there are no guarantees. “It’s like a six-month long job interview… Every day is intense,” Bentley said.
The training includes use of force, firearms, driving skills to operate a cruiser at a high rate of speed and avoid obstacles, investigative skills, and every conceivable aspect of policing.
It’s stressful, especially since candidates get only so many chances to get it right, before they are rejected.
“People are sent home all the time. It’s a very unnerving environment,” said Bentley. “When you’re at Depot, they really try to teach you how to handle stress and being tired… Your days start early. You work all through the day. They press you hard.”
And, he said, they teach you that “it’s important to be professional, even if you’re tired, even if someone is getting under your skin.”
Cadets train in troops of 30, and come to rely on each other, for support and encouragement in the para-military organization. Bentley credited his fellow cadets with helping him overcome his major weakness: “I went from being one of the worst shooters – I was hitting everyone else’s targets – to being one of the best shooters.”
That pride in accomplishment, the sense of being part of an honourable tradition, were obvious, as Bentley displayed his red serge uniform.
Bentley’s first posting was to Richmond, B.C., where he first met Millington. Dismissing a myth, Bentley explained that the RCMP doesn’t randomly post new officers across the country. Graduates of the academy are asked for their preferences – and British Columbia, and Richmond, were near the top of his list.
When Bentley chose Richmond, a city near Vancouver, he expected to be posted there for one year, then assigned to the Vancouver Airport for a year, before heading back to Richmond to complete his first 5-year ‘contract.’
“In 2007, everything changed,” said Millington. “One night, in 2007, we got into a physical altercation with a man who needed to be arrested. Unfortunately, he died of a heart attack.”
When Robert Dziekanski died after being tasered, everyone was asked for a statement: RCMP officers, airport staff, bystanders.
“We all made mistakes in our statements,” said Millington – honest mistakes, he said, but the result was that “four officers were charged with perjury. Not only that, we were charged with getting together to commit perjury.”
It was a determination that still shocks Millington, but he insisted, “This is not a sob story. It’s about finding value where other people can’t… I had to do that from the moment I walked through those prison doors.”
On Oct. 31, 2017, his appeals exhausted, Millington went to prison, ending a 12-year career with the RCMP.
He was to spend 10 months in prison – initially in solitary confinement, for his own protection, in a seven-by-11-foot cell with “nothing but a metal bed, a toilet, a sink, and a lot of time to think.”
Millington admitted that he was initially angry, and bitter. Why had he been convicted, when others were acquitted?
It was the library at the Joyceville Penitentiary that saved him, he said; his reading led him to the realization that he had to let go – “The present moment is the field on which the game of life is played,” Millington said at the Historical Society meeting – and rediscover gratitude.
He had a warm bed, warm clothes, three meals a day. “Those are three things that the homeless people in Kingston didn’t have, that the homeless people in my home town of Burlington didn’t have, that the homeless people in Regina didn’t have, when they were out in the freezing cold,” Millington said.
It was a humbling, but it was just the start. It was only when he was moved into the general population of a minimum-security prison that he reached the next stage, looking beyond labels.
Millington was still saw himself as an innocent man, and the other inmates as "bad," guilty offenders. Then he was invited to tutor his fellow inmates in English, helping them earn a diploma.
“Eighty-nine percent of prison inmates don’t have a high school diploma,” Millington noted, a limitation that can contribute to joblessness, and crime.
It was in helping those inmates – seeing their struggles and contributing to their achievements - that he came to an important realization: “Most of us are good people. Some of us just make mistakes.”
Millington said that it was in prison that he learned the true meaning of ‘Love’ – “Lift Others, Value Everyone.” Everyone has value, he said, but “I had to go to prison to be reminded of it.”
Millington has served his time and come out of the experience with resilience, a sense of gratitude, and new purpose – to share what he learned the hard way. His new book, ‘RISE’ is subtitled, The eight keys to overcoming adversity and living a life you’ll love.
Bentley and Millington brought a greater understanding of the RCMP to the Innisfil Historical Society on Saturday – what it means to be an RCMP officer, the pride in the training and being part of a national organization – and a greater understanding of an “incident” that drew international scrutiny to Canada’s national police service.
