By now we all know the story of  Robert Dziekanski in Vancouver, being killed with a taser because he became agitated, looking for his mother and speaking no English.

It is interesting, however, that the Canadian press seems to have gone to quite an extent to point out that Dziekanski was a smoker. Why should that matter? It does, actually – and for a perverse reason: to “explain” why he was agitated, or to let you come to that conclusion. Read: smokers are addicts, nicotine deprivation make them lose control – that explains it, doesn’t it?...

• It was not the rampant paranoia of sending several policemen with riot control gear against one unarmed man.
• It was not the abusive and unnecessary use of a lethal weapon by a brainless idiot who happened to wear a uniform.
• It was not a nine-hour flight (and probably several additional hours in airports while transiting) that increased the victim's tension and stress.
• It was not the negligence of the airport personnel, who ignored the man for hours.
• It was not the ignorance of the airport personnel, who did not even know the difference between Russian and Polish, and that at any rate failed to find an interpreter, or to communicate at least with sign language -- and with a smile.
• It was not the Gestapo-like, dehumanized surrounding of the cold and impersonal Vancouver airport, inhospitable enough to deny a smoking area for its guests in the name of the “public health” trash ideology and frauds.
• It was not the hallucinating sequence of mechanized messages endlessly broadcast through the airport’s communication system threatening punishments, issuing warnings against smoking, about luggage, parking, security, procedures, and capable of scaring exhausted people from areas of the world that are still human enough not to take pride in the robotic, sterile, cold, smoke-free, “health-minded” and mindless society that countries like Canada have regressed into.

No.

Those are, at best, concomitant factors. The real reason for the accident may be subliminally implicit rather than honestly explicit, so typical of the healthist way of communicationg without taking responsibility: nicotine deprivation. Read: if Dziekanski was a non-smoker, perhaps this would not have happened. You see? Don’t smoke – smoking is bad for you! Non smoking helps you stay calm and prevents you from being killed by a taser and by five cops in riot gear. Don't smoke and don't worry - be happy.

This article by George Jonas published by the Ottawa Citizen gives us an interesting angle on the Dziekanski incident. Pierre Lemieux, quoted in the article, says something that is far-reaching, and quite deep in its simplicity:

“In more civilized times the officer who approached Dziekanski might have offered him a cigarette.
Had the officer been able to do so today, chances are he wouldn't have had to reach for his stun gun.”

See also Jona's column on the National Post. (stored article here)