Jim Cairns

To most people, this post will be meaningless. However, I post it here because I have been closely following (and posting to this blog) his support of tasers in Canada and the blatant conflict of interest that is this man's connection to Taser International.

October 1, 2008
Debra Black, Toronto Star

Jim Cairns, who was criticized today in the final report of the Public Inquiry into Pediatric Forensic Pathology in Ontario, immigrated to Canada in 1972 and set up a family practise in Brampton.

Born in Northern Ireland, Cairns graduated from Queen's University, Belfast, with degrees in medicine, surgery and obstetrics.

He also had a diploma in obstetrics from the Royal College of Obstetrics and Gynaecologists, London England and did three years post-grad training at Belfast City Hospital in emergency medicine and obstetrics.

After arriving in Canada, he eventually became deputy chief of family practice and then director of the emergency department at Peel Memorial Hospital.

He was first appointed coroner in 1979. In 1990 he was elected president of the Ontario Coroners Association and regularly lectured on death scene investigations and the role of the coroner's office.

In 1991 he was given the job of Deputy Chief Coroner for Ontario.

Cairns was an avid bicyclist and interested in fitness and sports medicine, according to a profile that ran in the Toronto Star in 1991. Cairns was well liked for his straight-talking style.

Last year, he was criticized for his support of the use of Tasers by police and for an alleged conflict of interest with a Taser manufacturing company.