Barring any unforeseen last-minute revelations, the Braidwood inquiry is finally set to hear closing arguments Oct. 5.
The final three witnesses took the stand yesterday to wrap up testimony into the death of Polish immigrant Robert Dziekanski, and to add a new lawyer to the narrative of Oct. 14, 2007.
Spanish translator Gracie Churchill-Brown was working at the Vancouver International Airport early that morning and said immigration officers were fully aware Dziekanski's mother, Zofia Cisowski, was waiting for the 40-year-old before being told to go home.
Churchill-Brown said that despite the obvious language barriers, officers were able to determine Dziekanski spoke Polish, get his papers, get the name of his contact - Cisowski - and offered him water.
Later in the night, the translator recalled one officer say, "What is this man still doing here? His family has been here all day and they just left for Kamloops."
Worried for Dziekanski's state of mind, Churchill-Brown asked why an interpreter wasn't available.
"Why don't you call an interpreter? You call me all the time," she recalled telling the officers.
To the shock of Cisowski, who sat crying in the front row of the gallery yesterday, one of the officers responded by saying, "Oh, he's a big boy," Churchill-Brown testified.
The translator ended her shift at 1:30 a.m. and remembers seeing three ambulances arrive as she left the airport.
"I hope there hasn't been a shooter," she remembers thinking. She would eventually learn Dziekanski's fate through the media.
The RCMP never interviewed Churchill-Brown, the inquiry heard.
The first time the commission found out about her involvement was through the 18,000 documents that were disclosed to the inquiry since June 2009 - when closing arguments were originally slated.
