Mountie acquitted in Dziekanski case accuses RCMP of 'coverup'

One of the RCMP officers who responded on the night Robert Dziekanski was Tasered and died at Vancouver International Airport in 2007 has filed a complaint against his supervisors and others, saying they interfered in the ensuing legal processes.

Const. Gerry Rundel, who was acquitted of perjury for his testimony about the Polish immigrant's death, filed the formal complaint to the Civilian Review and Complaints Commission for the RCMP(CRCC), the body in charge of reviewing RCMP conduct.

"Rather than take responsibility for their flawed Taser training and policy, they chose to redirect the blame and assisted to fabricate a crime on four of their own officers," Rundel said about his superiors in the complaint.

"An ensuing coverup of failing to disclose documents and properly investigate my complaints over the years is concerning and more importantly unlawful."

The CRCC acknowledgedon Monday that it had receivedthe complaint.

Rundel says he originally filed the complaint against RCMP "brass and others" at the beginning of May and, after hearing no response, requested an update a month later.

The CRCC dates his complaint to June 5.

Rundel was one four officers who responded to a call on Oct. 14, 2007, about Dziekanski,who had spent about eight hours stuck in customs at the airport and had started behaving erratically.

He was approached by the officers, jolted by a Taser multiple times and collapsed. He subsequently died.

The incident was caught on video by a bystander.

'Insurmountable' damages

Rundel alleges in his complaint that past and current members of the RCMP "interfered with a number of legal processes" since that day.

"The resulting damages that continue to this present day are insurmountable," he wrote.

Rundelalsofiled a lawsuitin 2016 claiming the force's actions have cost him his career and his health. The other officers at the scene have filed similar suits.

Only one of them, filed by former constableBill Bentley, has been settled so far.

According to the complaints process, acopy of Rundel's complaint to the CRCCwill besent to the RCMP and an investigator assigned to look into it.

RCMP are required to update the complainant of the investigation's status within 45 days.