The notion of not wanting to be known for Mountains, Moose and Mounties takes on a new meaning.

We all know by now what happened to Mr. Robert Dziekanski at Vancouver's International Airport. A quick scan/search of web pages and blog posts reveals that it's all over the net and all over the world (search in English, Spanish, French, etc., and you will get numerous results commenting or reporting on the incident - example "Polish Man Tasered to Death in Olympic City"). The famous video was posted on YouTube 4 days ago and it has had over 47,000 views already. I will not use this forum to express my personal outrage at this (I do remember some not very welcoming contacts with customs/immigration officers when I was not a citizen of this country and came as a visitor to see my sister in Vancouver many years ago -while my Mother was outside waiting for me- thank God I was fluent in English).

Suffice it to say that I am very dissappointed with RCMP conduct. On the one hand they allow single officers without backup to go check out possible dangerous situations (in the North) with tragic consequences, and on the other they send 4 officers to subdue an unarmed man in an airport (where he has obviously arrived after going through airport security elsewehere). I thought of posting the video here but you can go to YouTube and see it there (it's quite disturbing).

The purpose of this post is to pose the question? When the conversation in and out of cyberspace is loud and negative about Canada, how does it affect the tourism industry? How would PR experts address this particular incident? Should we try to be part of this conversation? Whether the officers' conduct was justifiable or not, the world is getting the impression that it wasn't. The fact that this incident happened at the airport that is getting ready to welcome the world in 2010 (recalling that many of those visitors probably do not speak English) is ironic, but should add to the concern over this matter. My opinion, and it's just my opinion, is that the Canadian tourism industry (TIAC?) should add its voice and express concern about the processes and procedures regarding foreign visitors' entry into Canada. Furthermore, the industry should call for Minister Day (as have others) to sincerely apologize to Mr. Dziekanski's family (even while this incident is under investigation) and for Prime Miniser Harper to address the Polish people (here and in Poland) in some way (if not to apologize) to reassure them that this kind of incident will not happen again.

My heart goes out to Mrs. Zofia Cisowski, Robert's Mother.

Regards,

Jaime