The RCMP apologized Tuesday for what it says was inaccurate information that misled the public about the circumstances of Robert Dziekanski's death.
The force has been under fire for almost two years since Dziekanski died after being stunned several times by a Taser at Vancouver International Airport.
The Mounties' media strategy now is being dissected at the Braidwood Commission inquiry into Dziekanski's death.
Spokesman Sgt. Tim Shields told reporters covering the commission hearings the RCMP strives to provide accurate information to the media.
"In this case, during the course of the investigation we found that there was some information that was provided and made public that was not accurate," Shields said. "And for those inaccuracies we apologize and we are sorry."
The apology came as the Mounties' chief spokesman during the initial phase of incident insisted he never intentionally misled reporters about what happened to Dziekanski.
Sgt. Pierre Lemaitre testified he saw a crucial part of the video that recorded Dziekanski's fatal confrontation with RCMP before he met reporters.
After the video was released publicly, Lemaitre came under fire from critics who allege he misled the media and the public about what prompted RCMP to stun Dziekanski with a Taser.
The video shows Dziekanski being shocked just seconds after four Mounties surrounded the agitated man at Vancouver airport's international arrivals area.
Dziekanski died Oct. 14, 2007, after being stunned several times.
Just hours later, Lemaitre gave interviews that suggested Dziekanski was combative with officers who struggled with him.
But the video, shot by traveller Paul Pritchard, shows Dziekanski seeming to back away from the Mounties and holding an open stapler just before being stunned. He then staggers, flails his arms and falls to the ground, with the Taser repeatedly used on him until he is handcuffed.
Lemaitre insisted Dziekanski was stunned twice while the video -- backed by a woman who witnessed the incident -- indicated he was shocked more than twice. Evidence would reveal it was five times.
Lemaitre said he learned months later it was more than twice after investigators analyzed the Taser used on Dziekanski.
He clung to the incorrect figure despite reporters' questions regarding what the woman witnessed.
"That's the information I had and until I get a further update. . . the facts are going to remain the way they are," he told lawyer Walter Kosteckyj, who represents Dziekanski's mother, Zofia Cisowski.
Lemaitre said that even though he was senior media relations officer for the RCMP in the province, he had to defer to Cpl. Dale Carr, of the Integrated Homicide Investigation Team, in a homicide case.
"Over my years of experience, in a homicide investigation IHIT calls the shots," he said. "That's the way it is."
Lemaitre, who now works in the RCMP's traffic division, admitted the furor over Dziekanski besmirched his reputation. But he had no way to publicly correct the inaccuracies.
"You know what," he told Kosteckyj, "being a police officer -- and I believe that you were at one time -- you grow a thicker skin.
"What was a greater concern is that a man had lost his life and an investigation had to be conducted to get to the bottom of it. Whether my feelings were hurt or not had absolutely nothing to do with it."
Lemaitre testified he viewed about a minute of the Pritchard recording on a laptop computer at the Richmond RCMP detachment before going to the airport to speak to reporters.
"The sequence that I can recall is the sequence where Mr. Dziekanski is Tasered," Lemaitre testified.
"What I saw were three (RCMP) members struggling with him."
Lemaitre said Carr called him around 4:30 a.m., a couple of hours after Dziekanski was declared dead, and asked him to assist with handling media because there would be "international interest" in the incident and Lemaitre was bilingual.
"My question to him, simply put, was `Dale, what is it that you want me to say?"' Lemaitre testified.
He and Carr met at the Richmond detachment, whose jurisdiction includes the airport, two hours later and attended a meeting of dozen homicide investigators, where he saw part of the Pritchard video.
Also at the meeting was Cpl. Monty Robinson, the officer in charge of the Mounties who confronted Dziekanski.
Lemaitre said he doesn't recall whether Robinson said anything at the meeting, adding he did not take any notes that day. He said his interaction was with Carr, trying to work out their media strategy.
"What is it that we want to do here?" he recalled.
"We wanted to get as much information as possible out to the public, because in the past we had had situations where the RCMP had been criticized for not coming forward and giving information."
Lemaitre admitted his comments after the incident might have left an impression with the public of a longer period of time between the Mounties' initial contact with Dziekanski and the first use of the Taser.
The video shows it was shorter, he said.
Commission lawyer Art Vertlieb asked Lemaitre, a Mountie since 1986, if the video section he saw that morning gave him the impression violence was escalating.
"I can't answer that," he said. "I wasn't there."
Having dealt one-on-one with people during his career as an officer in small B.C. detachments, Lemaitre said he could not guess what the officers facing Dziekanski may have seen in his eyes that led them to use the Taser.
But he insisted that what he saw of the video that morning led him to conclude Dziekanski was combative.
