VANCOUVER - Border officers knew Robert Dziekanski didn't speak English soon after he arrived at Vancouver's airport and say he would have had access to a translator had they decided to call one, the public inquiry heard Tuesday.

Instead the confused man wandered around the airport for hours before his fatal confrontation involving a Taser and four RCMP officers.

The Canadian Border Services Agency and the airport faced heavy criticism following Dziekanski's death in October 2007, specifically for not calling in a translator to help the man and discover why he was agitated.

Monica Kullar, one of the first border officers to deal with Dziekanski in Vancouver, recalled that he was sweating and speaking rapidly in Polish as he tried to fill out a form for customs.

Kullar told the inquiry Dziekanski calmed down and was courteous and non-threatening as he finished filling out the document and moved on.

She marked off a section on his form that indicated he had a language barrier, which would have been seen by other officers that encountered him in the hours before his death.

"So if the passenger does not speak English or French and we are unable to communicate with him, it is a mandatory referral for a language barrier," she said.

"It would go to both customs and immigration, if they are a non-resident."

Dziekanski took hours to pass through various stages of customs and immigration screenings before he walked to the international arrivals area.

It was there where he began throwing furniture and had his first confrontation with airport security and then RCMP officers.

The inquiry heard that at no point did anyone call a translator, even though it was clear that Dziekanski was from Poland and he was flagged for not speaking English.

Kullar said she wouldn't normally call a translator to her station -- which is the primary inspection point where passengers make customs declarations.

Instead, she said that would be the responsibility of other officers in the secondary screening areas that followed, who had access to translators over the telephone.

Yvette-Monique Gray of the Canada Border Services Agency confirmed that officers have a list of translators that are just a phone call away 24 hours a day.

Gray wouldn't comment specifically about what happened to Dziekanski, but she said there are other ways to communicate with people that don't speak English, such as translated instruction booklets.

She told reporters during a break in the hearings that border officers will tell the inquiry why a translator wasn't called.

Gray added that while policies surrounding translators haven't changed, officers are likely more aware of them.

"Collectively, everyone is more interested in interpretive services."

Kullar's testimony reinforced earlier accounts suggesting that while Dziekanski may have been sweating and nervous, he was relatively calm in the hours before his death.

And when she saw him from a distance just before 1 a.m. -- less than an hour before he was stunned by a Taser -- he again appeared normal.

"I just remember he wasn't sweating anymore, because I was looking at that when he first came in, and he seemed a lot calmer than when I first saw him," she said.

Still, Kullar didn't inquire about why Dziekanski was still in the airport when she saw him nearly nine hours later as she left for the night.

A fellow passenger and two crew members on Dziekanski's flights to Canada testified Monday that he was sweating but was otherwise peaceful.

That testimony, as well as Kullar's, prompted the RCMP officers' lawyers to focus their questions about how sweaty Dziekanski appeared and whether he may have been drinking.

It was a strategy that the lawyer for Dziekanski's mother said was an attempt to vilify the man.

The inquiry is scheduled for the next six weeks as retired judge Thomas Braidwood examines the circumstances surrounding Dziekanski's death and prepares to make recommendations.

Among the witnesses will be the four RCMP officers that responded, who also have lawyers present to ask questions.

Braidwood oversaw another inquiry last year examining the use of Tasers in general. A report from that is expected within weeks.