EDITORIAL: Stop hiding facts on taser use

May 15, 2008
Kingston Whig-Standard

In the world of policing, when a suspect or a witness is less than forthcoming, an officer's radar tells him or her someone's hiding something. How should the Canadian public react when it hears the Royal Canadian Mounted Police are steadfastly withholding information about how and when its officers use the controversial Taser?

Mounties have stripped any new answers from a heavily censored report on the high-profile stun gun incident involving Robert Dziekanski in Vancouver Airport.

There's a disturbing pattern emerging. The Mounties seem to be circling the wagons when it comes to scrutiny over the use of Tasers. The national police service has routinely avoided any details about how and when it uses Tasers when the issue of appropriate use of the device is questioned.

The Mounties' practice of hiding facts won't make the issue go away, it will only heighten suspicion - and deservedly so - that the RCMP have something to hide.