Today on
Listen Up, Looking for Kindness. We visit Vancouver International
Airport to explore what went wrong in our response to someone in need.
It
was on the floor of Vancouver International Airport that Canada has
faced a question that hits close to home. “Do we have what it takes to
be a good neighbour?” Recently, a traveler died after being tasered by
the RCMP.
Thanks to a video of the incident that was posted on
the Internet, his final cries of frustration and agony have echoed
around the world.
What went wrong? Could something as simple as kindness have prevented such a tragedy?
THE CONTEXT
On October 13, 4:00 p.m., 40-year-old Polish-born Robert Dziekanski,
arrives in Canada for the first time following a long, trans-Atlantic
flight. Disembarking, he proceeds to a secure area near the luggage
carousels, where he waits for six-and-a-half-hours…
Meanwhile, Robert’s mother, Zofia Cisowski, is searching the
airport for her son. She becomes concerned when she cannot find him.
Robert has never flown before. He speaks no English. Zofia waits
and searches, seeking help in vain.
At about 10:30 p.m., Robert passes to the second stage of immigration,
where he is granted landed immigrant status early on the morning of
October 14. Shortly thereafter, he goes out into the public area
of the airport. More than nine hours after his flight lands, he is
clearly agitated. His frustration is caught on video by a bystander. So
is the end of his life.
THE GUESTS
Dr. Darryl Plecas
RCMP Research Chair in Crime Reduction
Director, ICURS - UCFV Research Lab
Dr. Darryl Plecas is a professor in the Department of Criminology and
Criminal Justice at the University College of Fraser Valley. He has
authored many publications that address criminal justice issues, and
some of his research interests include police and corrections
operational issues and effectiveness.
Walter Kosteckyj
Cisowski Family Lawyer
Walter Kosteckyj practices personal injury law for the firm, Thompson
and Elliott. He is a member of both the Canadian Bar Association and
the Trial Lawyers Association of British Columbia. He also formerly
served as a member of the R.C.M.P.
Jim Wallis
Jim Wallis serves as a Green Coat Volunteer at the Vancouver
International airport. He is a part of a program that assists visitors
who are lost at the airport. The team encompasses over 230 Green Coat
volunteers who speak a combined 26 languages.
Major Ron Trickett
Major Ron Trickett is part of a team of airport chaplains on duty to
handle travelers in need. This is his fourth year as chaplain at
Vancouver International Airport. Prior to his position at the airport,
he served as an officer in the Salvation Army for 44 years. Ten of
those years were spent serving in Africa, while the rest he spent in
Canada working in the Native communities.
Journey Home Community is a program that began in September, 2005 out
of a need for refugee claimants who were falling through the cracks in
the asylum documentation process. There are a few agencies that
assist refugee claimant men, but JHC is different in that they are the
only program to assist refugee claimant families through the often
confusing and difficult transition process in coming into Canada. This
is a group that’s given more space than most for welcoming the
stranger. JHC’s board consists of eight people, with a core
group of five workers. They coordinate with a liquid group of about
30-50 volunteers and four different churches in the Vancouver area,
rounding out the unique community effort.
Dave Phillips is the author of Three Big Questions. The book answers
big questions in life “that everyone asks sooner or later.”
Dave is also a former Olympian representing Canada’s National
Freestyle Snow Ski team. As a motivational speaker, he often draws from
real-life experiences for his inspiration. He shares one of those
gripping experiences with us on Listen Up.
“Make Me Aware of People”
Lord, make me aware of the wonder of people. All kinds of people, old
or young, important or humble, neighbor or child or foreigner or
stranger on the street. You have made us all so marvelously varied,
outwardly so different in face and form and circumstance, yet basically
so much alike. Each of us is going his own way with such private
passion, locked in his tiny universe of self. However we strive to
share, give, communicate, we’re bounded by the limited horizons
of out own concerns.
God, make me more vitally cognizant of these other worlds, spinning
behind all these faces. Such complex, fascinating worlds, filled with
memories, worries, anxieties, philosophies, ambitions, experiences.
Remind me to listen, really listen when people open their mouths, like
small doors to that world, and try to share what’s inside. Remind
me to look, really look, into the hopeful windows of their eyes. I can
never really enter, no, but how much I can learn from these brief
glimpses. How much my own world can be expanded. How much I can give,
just by listening.
Help me not to go coasting off on the barge of my own conceits, or wait
in half-dead exasperation for my turn. Help me to realize the marvel of
being invited even to the doorstep of another person’s world.
Lord, make me always aware of the wonder of people – people who
live and think and breather and feel, the same as I do. People
laughing, crying, loving, hurting, touching. People gazing into store
windows..hailing taxis…scrubbing floors. People with the sand
hot against their feet on a windy beach…or a cold side-walk
bitter through broken shoes.
The sheer wonder of people, God. In joy or torment or the little acts
of everyday. Your people. My people. An extension of You, and so of
each of us.
If I can identify with other people, taste their tears as well as mine,
rejoice in their rejoicing, then I can be more completely your
creation, and more aware of who I am myself.
THE WRAP When we visited
Vancouver’s airport, the Chapel service had a prayer, “Make Me Aware of
People.” It began, “Lord, make me always aware of the wonder of
people.” That’s exactly where I need to begin on my shortcomings with
being kind. I need to ask God to remind me that I am loved by God and
I’ll be at my best when I’m giving that love away.
Since
dedicating the small "converted" ticket counter in 1983, Vancouver
Airport Chaplaincy has ministered to thousands of people ranging from
passengers traveling because of a death to refugees and immigrants
needing assistance. The program also holds “Fear-of-Flying” seminars
and provides counseling and emotional support for passengers and staff.
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On April 30, 2005 Lorna was privileged to receive an honorary Doctorate of Christian Ministries from Canada's largest Christian university, Trinity Western University. Lorna was recognized for the witness and leadership that Listen Up TV has provided in public messaging: "a leader in the voice of evangelical life in Canada."
