RCMP watchdog won't be reappointed

November 27, 2009
CBC News

The federal government will not be reappointing Paul Kennedy as the chair of the Commission for Public Complaints Against the RCMP, CBC News has learned.

Kennedy, whose last day on the job will be Dec. 31, reportedly would have accepted another term. He was interested in seeing through anticipated new legislation to bring in a civilian oversight agency for the RCMP.

Kennedy recently completed an investigation into the death of Robert Dziekanski at the Vancouver International Airport and has investigated in-custody deaths, Taser use and how Mounties investigate themselves.

Liberal MP Ujjal Dosanjh said the public interest would be better served if Kennedy remained in his post.

"I believe this government is not interested in anyone with any degree of independence. They want servile public servants," he said.

"Whenever someone is doing a tremendous job in the public interest they want to shut them down. They did this with the military police complaints commissioner, Peter Tinsley."

Tinsley, whose term also expires next month and will not be renewed, also wanted to stay on because of his ongoing inquiry into the treatment of Afghan detainees.

A statement from the office of Public Safety Minister Peter Van Loan thanked Kennedy for his "distinguished and professional service," adding he has "provided guidance that will be considered as the RCMP continues to make progress on its transformation agenda."

"The government will be moving to reform oversight of the RCMP in the months ahead to strengthen accountability," the statement said. "It will seek to ensure independent investigation of incidents, so that the force does not lead investigations into itself."

New warnings from taser manufacturer

October 8, 2009
CTV BC
With files from CTV British Columbia’s Peter Grainger

The manufacturer of Taser guns has posted a new training bulletin on its website recommending that officers avoid aiming at the chests of suspects.

The bulletin says it is not possible to predict or test whether Tasers do or don’t affect the human heart.

“In order to increase the safety margin and since field experience shows that (Taser) discharges are effective when deployed to the large muscles of the back, abdomen, legs and pelvic triangle, users should aim for the back or (when practical) toward the mid lower abdomen and avoid intentionally targeting the chest area,” the bulletin states.

The lawyer representing the family of Robert Dziekanski, who died after being hit in the chest by a Taser at Vancouver International Airport and whose death spurred a public inquiry, said the warning comes too little, too late.

“The inquiry in the first phase did find that there could be direct capture of the heart, as a result of the use of the Taser. That is something that has always been denied,” said Walter Kostecky.

M-P and B-C's former Attorney General Ujjal Dosanjh agrees this is an overdue but welcomed development, “Now Taser by implication is admitting that it causes death, that it is a very serious weapon and that it should be used under more strict guidelines.”

Police in Vancouver say they have already notified their officers about the warning.

There is no word yet from B.C.’s solicitor general or the RCMP on whether this will become a province-wide policy.

Meanwhile, Dziekanski's mother filed a lawsuit Wednesday alleging excessive force and "cruel and unusual" treatment by the four RCMP officers who stunned her son with a Taser.

Zofia Cisowski is suing the four officers, the Canadian and British Columbia governments, and the Vancouver airport, where Dziekanski collapsed and died after being stunned by Mounties in October 2007.

The lawsuit alleges everyone involved failed Dziekanski in some way.

"Mr. Dziekanski died as a result of injuries he sustained in the assault and physical restraint by the RCMP members," says the statement of claim filed in B.C. Supreme Court on Wednesday.

It claims the four RCMP officers had no reasonable grounds to detain Dziekanski or stun him multiple times with a Taser after being summoned to the airport to deal with an agitated Dzieksanki.

Cisowksi's lawsuit also alleges that RCMP failed to notify of her son's death -- that was left to an airport employee when she returned to the airport to find him -- and then "knowingly misrepresented her son's conduct and the cause of his death."

In the statement of claim, she says she it wasn't until she saw a witness' video of the confrontation her son had with the four RCMP officers that she realized how he had died. Cisowski says she saw the video prior to it being released to the media.

The lawsuit alleges the airport and federal border officers also failed Dziekanski, by not providing translation services or adequately helping Dziekanski, either when he was making his way through customs or after he began throwing furniture in a public area.

These officials also failed to provide Cisowski any "meaningful" assistance, and she left the airport while her son was still waiting inside the customs area.

A Justice Department lawyer confirmed that the federal ministry has been served but no statement of defence has been filed and the department declined to comment Thursday.

Taser International to challenge Braidwood findings

August 14, 2009
CBC News

Taser International plans to launch a legal challenge against the findings of a British Columbia inquiry into how police use the stun guns.

In an email to CBC News, a spokesman for the company said it will file papers in a B.C. court on Friday.

"Taser International intends to file an application for judicial review in the Supreme Court of British Columbia related to the Braidwood Commission," said Peter Holran, the vice-president of public relations and government affairs for the company.

Taser won't make any further comment beyond the contents of the filing, he said.

The B.C. inquiry was launched in the wake of the death of Robert Dziekanski, a Polish immigrant, who died at Vancouver International Airport in October 2007 after being shocked multiple times with an RCMP Taser.

Released in July, it concluded that stun guns can be deadly and much tougher rules must be adopted if they are to remain an option for police.

Former B.C. Appeal Court justice Thomas Braidwood, who headed the inquiry, also recommended that stun guns only be used in single five-second bursts in most cases — rather than multiple bursts — citing increased medical risks associated with repeated shocks, and that paramedic assistance be requested in every medically high-risk situation.

Taser, which makes virtually all the stun guns being used by police forces, has steadfastly argued its stun guns are safe.

It argues the inquiry based its recommendations largely on speculation and that Braidwood's recommendations do not meet the realities of modern day law enforcement.

Liberal MP Ujal Dosanjh, the party's former public safety critic who has been outspoken on the use of stun guns, said Taser's challenge is a tactic aimed to intimidate.

"I think it's a very flagrant attempt on its part to intimidate the critics of Taser and to discredit the inquiry report of a distinguished jurist," said Dosanjh from B.C.

"They are solely motivated by profit. Public safety can't be their priority," he said, adding the company has a battery of lawyers to "vigorously pursue" any critics.

The second phase of the inquiry, focusing on Dziekanski's death, will resume in September, following which Braidwood is expect to issue his second report.

Dziekanski 'would not have died' if spared Taser, expert tells inquiry

May 8, 2009
CBC News

Robert Dziekanski would have lived if he hadn't been stunned by a Taser when confronted by RCMP officers at Vancouver airport in 2007, a medical expert in sudden death testified Friday at a public inquiry.

Dr. Zian Tseng, a cardiac electrophysiologist at the University of California in San Francisco, has studied in-custody sudden deaths, and his work shows that once Tasers were deployed, the rate of those deaths increased six times, though not all were directly attributed to Tasers, the inquiry heard.

In his testimony, Tseng outlined what happens to the heart when a person is stunned by a Taser. In the Dzeikanski case, he concluded that the Polish immigrant would not have died if he hadn't been jolted by a Taser.

"I tried to put myself in that situation and think about if the Taser was not discharged in that case and he simply struggled with police," Tseng said. "In my opinion, in that kind of scenario, he would not have died."

Dziekanski died on the floor of the airport soon after being shocked five times by a police Taser. Four RCMP officers had been sent to the international arrivals lounge in response to reports that Dziekanski was throwing furniture and causing a scene. Within seconds of their arrival, a Taser was deployed to subdue Dziekanski.

Tseng told the inquiry Friday Dziekanski was already in a heightened state of stress, frustrated by the situation he found himself in.

Dziekanski's stress level was made worse by the use of the Taser, which triggered a medical condition known as "ventricular tachycardia," which Tseng described as a dangerous heart rhythm.

The Taser jolts in this case either directly or indirectly led to that condition, which could lead to the heart stopping completely, Tseng testified.

The inquiry heard last month from a cardiology expert, who was paid by Taser International for sitting on its medical advisory board, that Dziekanski's death didn't seem to be related to the stun gun.

Dr. Charles Swerdlow testified Dziekanski's heart didn't stop immediately after the deployment of the Taser, adding that if the heart was affected by electrical current, the resulting heartbeat would be either too fast or irregular.

Not acting in public interest: Dosanjh
Liberal MP Ujjal Dosanjh paid a surprise visit to the inquiry Friday to listen to Tseng's testimony.

Dosanjh, who was B.C.'s attorney general in 1999 and okayed the use of Tasers by police in the province, said he now regrets his decision.

"If I had known all of the information [about Tasers], if I had been given the truth, which I wasn't given, I wouldn't have made the decision I made," Dosanjh said.

He also said lawyers representing the federal government and the Mounties in the inquiry are not acting in the public interest at the inquiry.

The provincial inquiry was called in the wake of Dziekanski's death and is being overseen by Thomas Braidwood, a retired B.C. Court of Appeal justice. Braidwood will make recommendations to prevent similar incidents, and he could make findings of misconduct against the officers or anyone else involved.

Throughout these proceedings, Dosanjh said, the federal lawyers have taken a position of undermining Dziekanski's victimization and defending the role of the RCMP officers and the use of the Taser.

He said the federal lawyers seem to be doing that "because they want to limit the liability of the four officers in the RCMP and the federal government."

"But what they are doing by pursuing that short-term interest is actually preventing the public interest in a larger sense from being served, and that is absolutely not appropriate," Dosanjh said.

RCMP softened Taser-use restrictions - New research suggests more shots raise likelihood of causing death

'If one ping-pong ball hit to the head does not kill you, 1,000 probably cannot either.'
—Taser International

"It is a linear relationship: the more you are exposed — if you double the exposure, you double the risk of death." —Pierre Savard, biomedical engineer at Montreal's École Polytechnique who specializes in effects of electricity on the heart

March 25, 2009
CBC News

In response to national anger at the death of Polish immigrant Robert Dziekanski in the Vancouver airport, the RCMP was urged to curb multiple Taser use by its officers — but instead deleted an existing restriction from its stun-gun policy.

CBC News has learned that on Feb. 3, 2009, two sentences were erased from the main document that guides officers' actions — the first limiting Taser usage to one shot and no more than 20 seconds at a time, and the second requiring officers to warn suspects before deploying a stun gun.

"They have in fact not placed stricter guidelines on the multiple usage of the Taser; they've in fact removed the ban on multiple use in their new guidelines," said Liberal MP Ujjal Dosanjh, who chaired a parliamentary committee that reviewed RCMP Taser use.

"And that is absolutely reprehensible, it's unacceptable, it's retrogressive — it's actually moving backwards."

The RCMP's policy change comes at a time when new independent research has emerged suggesting that chance of death from stun guns rises with each exposure, contrary to claims by the largest stun-gun manufacturer and police forces using the devices.

"It is a linear relationship: the more you are exposed — if you double the exposure, you double the risk of death," Pierre Savard, a biomedical engineer at Montreal's École Polytechnique who specializes in effects of electricity on the heart, told CBC News.

Savard studied statistics on more than 300 Taser-related deaths compiled by Amnesty International and results from 3,200 RCMP Taser deployments amassed by CBC/Radio-Canada and the Canadian Press.

That electrical current, says Savard, increases the heart rate and can directly affect the cardiac rhythm. "There are plausible mechanisms that can relate the Taser itself to death," said Savard.

A direct link between Tasers and death cannot yet be established, says Savard, until there are enough deaths for such analysis. He notes as an example that it wasn't immediately possible to link lung cancer to smoking when mass cigarette use first began.

Dziekanski hit by stun gun for 31 seconds

The Arizona-based Taser International maintains that its stun guns don't affect the heart and several zaps have no more effect on your health than one.

It points out that thousands of people have survived stun guns and compares the weapon's cycles to hollow ping pong balls: "If one ping-pong ball hit to the head does not kill you, 1,000 probably cannot either."

Based on his findings, however, Savard believes police forces should limit exposure to one or two shocks and not more than 20 seconds in total.

RCMP Corp. Gregg Gillis, a use-of-force trainer in B.C., denies the sentences were removed due to legal concerns. He says the force never had an outright ban on using the weapon more than once and instead allowed the situation dictate the use.

The restriction written in the 2005 policy was based on older research, since proven wrong, about electrical weapons impairing breathing, said Gillis.

"We said be cautious about the use of multiple exposures, because we're not sure what the outcome might be from that, because there wasn't clear medical research that spoke to that issue."

Use of Tasers by the RCMP and other police forces has come under intense scrutiny since Dziekanski's death on Oct. 14, 2007, in the arrivals area of the Vancouver International Airport.

A bystander's amateur video captured Dziekanski's final moments, allowing officials and people around the world to witness the encounter between him and the four RCMP officers.

Committee pushed for restrictions

The video reveals that RCMP Const. Kwesi Millington deployed the Taser on Dziekanski five times, for a total of 31 seconds in the span of a minute. At the Braidwood inquiry, Millington testified he feared for the officers' safety after Dziekanski grabbed a stapler. Dziekanski clearly falls to the floor in the video, taped by Paul Pritchard, but the constable uses the stun gun four more times. After learning that her son had been shocked five times with a Taser, Zofia Cisowski told CBC News that she wondered why police use Tasers at all. "They say they are human being[s] but who was my son? Also a human being," she said.

The House of Commons public safety and national security committee was among a handful of groups to investigate in the months that followed. In a report released in mid-June of 2008, the group, representing politicians of all stripes, called the RCMP's policy too permissive and pointed out weaknesses in officer training.

Most importantly, the committee called for the force to put "clear restrictions" on officers discharging stun guns multiple times and recommended they limit use to cases where the suspect is combative or poses a "risk of death and grievous bodily harm."

And if the Mounties weren't willing to do so by mid-December, the committee threatened to seek a moratorium on their use of the weapons. Eight months after the committee's report, RCMP Commissioner William Elliott told the committee that the force had introduced a revised Taser policy back in June 2008.

"I believe the facts are we have made significant changes in response to the committee's report and to respond to the recommendations," Elliott told the parliamentary committee on Feb. 12, 2009. "We have taken steps to restrict its use."

The policy added recognition that a stun gun could cause death, especially for "acutely agitated" individuals, and still informed officers that multiple or continuous shocks may be hazardous.

But the RCMP eliminated a line prohibiting officers from shocking someone more than once.

The old policy, in place since 2005, had stated: "Multiple deployment or continuous cycling of the [Conducted Energy Weapons] may be hazardous to a subject. Unless situational factors dictate otherwise … do not cycle the CEW repeatedly, nor more than 15-20 seconds at a time against a subject."

RCMP out of touch: Dosanjh

In another section, the policy instructed officers to issue a warning before using a Taser. "Police, stop or you will be hit with 50,000 volts of electricity!"

Dosanjh, the Liberal MP who chaired the parliamentary committee, was outraged by the removal of the two sentences. "The public safety minister has an obligation to call Mr. Elliott into his office and say, 'What are you doing? Why are you not levelling with Canadians?' " said Dosanjh. "'Why are you not levelling with the House of Commons committee that made recommendations?'"

He said the RCMP's upper echelons appear to be out of touch with Canadians' views on Taser use and the force is in need of an overhaul. "They don't understand the depth of the anger that Canadians feel about the Taser."

Some also fear such policy changes could serve to protect the RCMP in future cases of Taser-related deaths.

"It could weaken the case of a victim if indeed the policies of the RCMP are more permissible than they were at the time of Robert Dziekanski's death," said Don Rosenbloom, the lawyer representing the Polish government at the Braidwood inquiry.

RCMP trainer Gillis cited two studies for making the force's policy change: one examining police officers who received one five-second shock; and another paid for by Taser International on the effects of repeated stuns on breathing.

And Gillis insists that officers are hearing the message on how dangerous multiple stun-gun use can be during training.

In fact, three of the officers involved in the Dziekanski case were trained by Gillis three months before the death, but appeared unclear on the policy during testimony at the Braidwood inquiry.

Two of the officers, Millington and Const. Bill Bentley, couldn't recall why the policy on multiple Taser use was adopted.

And in fact, the study cited by Elliott to the parliamentary committee to defend the safety of Tasers, done by a U.S. government agency, the National Institute of Justice, questions multiple stun-gun use.

While it found stun-gun exposure is safe in most cases, it clearly stated that the risk of death following repeated or continuous Taser exposure is still unknown.

"Law enforcement should be aware that the associated risks are unknown. Therefore, caution is urged in using multiple activations of CED as a mean to accomplish subdual."

An analysis of RCMP stun gun reports by CBC and the Canadian Press found that 45 per cent of cases involved an officer firing the stun gun more than once.

As for deleting the verbal warning officers are to give suspects, Gillis said it was taken out due to accuracy.

Tasers don't conduct 50,000 volts of electricity, he says, noting that the weapon's electrical impact is measured in current, the rate of the flow of electrons, rather than voltage, the amount of force driving the flow.

Gillis said officers are generally trained to use appropriate warnings to de-escalate situations, even though the policy no longer requires it.

In Dziekanski's case, no warning was issued by Const. Kwesi Millington before the first of five stun-gun deployments.

For more on this story, watch The National Wednesday at 9 p.m. and 11 p.m. ET/PT on CBC Newsworld and at 10 p.m. local time on CBC Television and 10:30 p.m. NT.

RCMP operational manual on conducted energy weapons (as amended Feb. 2, 2009)

RCMP operational manual on conducted energy weapons (cached version from before Feb. 2, 2009)

March 25, 2009
CBC News

Sir:

This is to follow up on your request for an interview today with me and your subsequent telephone conversation with Supt. Tim Cogan. We understand you wanted to ask about your perception that there is a discrepancy between the RCMP’s revised policy on Conducted Energy Weapons and statements I made to the House of Commons Standing Committee on Public Safety and National Security (SECU) on February 12, 2009. Unfortunately I am not available to be interviewed.

In your conversation with Supt. Cogan, you referenced my opening remarks to SECU where I addressed the second recommendation of the Standing Committee’s June 2008 Report and indicated “The RCMP’s revised CEW policy restricts the use of CEWs and specifically warns of the hazards of multiple deployment or continuous cycling of the CEW.”

I stand by this statement. It refers to the two aspects of the recommendation in question, relating to usage guidelines more broadly and multiple discharges.

The revised RCMP policy does restrict the use of CEWs. Section 3. 1. 1 of the revised Operational Manual (O.M.) states: “The CEW must only be used in accordance with CEW training, the principles of the Incident Management/Intervention Model (IM/IM) and in response to a threat to officer or public safety as determined by a member’s assessment of the totality of the circumstances being encountered. NOTE: Member’s actions must be reasonable and the force used must be necessary in the circumstances.”

With respect to the second aspect of the recommendation, RCMP policy includes a warning to Members that: “Multiple deployment or continuous cycling of the CEW may be hazardous to a subject.” (O.M. 3. 1. 3).

The new policy further provides that: “Acutely agitated or delirious persons may be at a high risk of death. If an individual is in an acutely agitated or delirious state, and whenever possible when responding to reports of violent individuals, request the assistance of emergency medical services. If possible bring medical assistance to the scene.” (O.M. 3. 1. 4)

The policy also directs members to make every effort to “take control of the subject as soon as possible following deployment of a CEW, and if possible during the CEW deployment”. The new policy also clearly states that “the CEW is not intended as a restraint device” (O.M. 3. 1. 5).

The statements I made to the Standing Committee are completely consistent with the policy.I trust this clarifies any misunderstanding you may have had about the RCMP’s revised CEW policy and my statements to the Standing Committee.

William Elliott

Taser teaser

June 14, 2008
UJJAL DOSANJH, MP, Vancouver South

In your editorial Dangerous Weapon Of Convenience (June 11), you contend - based on the testimony of one RCMP officer speaking to the House of Commons public safety committee - that Tasers were never meant to be used instead of a gun, and that legislators who approved Tasers misunderstood the true uses for these devices.

I want to reiterate that when I approved Tasers for use in British Columbia, I was assured they would be employed as an alternative to guns and lethal force in high-risk situations, and that they would be used sparingly. Though I now have real concerns about "usage creep," I could not have envisioned such slippage when I first allowed Tasers.

My understanding of your editorial is that you are not arguing for a complete ban. I want to state categorically that police forces across Canada should have this alternative to guns. But while I recognize that Tasers will not be the appropriate substitute in all situations, I would like them to replace the gun as often as possible. When a gun is drawn, police shoot to kill. I would not want police to always draw their guns.

Public sold a phony story on taser safety, use

May 21, 2008
PAUL WILLCOCKS, Special to The [Prince George] Citizen

VICTORIA -- Two things have jumped out from the provincial inquiry into Taser use.

First, the public has been misled at best, lied to at worst, about the safety of Tasers and the way they would be used.

And second, that civilian oversight of police is a myth in B.C. Government's claims that it sets policy on Taser use and most other police activities are empty.

I was an advocate for Tasers after a pilot project here in Victoria in 1999. They were pitched as a great tool that could make things safer for police and public.

At the end of a six-month trial, one of the officers enthusiastically cited examples from the nine times the Taser was used zap someone.

One case involved a naked, crazed man coming at officers with a long metal spike and deer antlers. If the Taser hadn't been available, he might have been shot. Another involved a deranged man determined to leap up the window in his 12th-floor apartment. Police tasered him in the nick of time. (The officer who provided the examples and pushed to have the weapon approved received stock options from Taser International two years later for his work on a holster design.)

The police convinced me the weapon offered a safer alternative than other options in some cases. The claims were always about taking down armed attackers or dealing at a safe distance with suicidal or dangerous people, something not possible with pepper spray.

More importantly, they convinced then attorney general Ujjal Dosanjh. But Dosanjh told the inquiry this month he was misled about the way police would use Tasers.

Kevin Begg, assistant deputy minister in the Solicitor General's Ministry, referred to "slippage" in Taser use. Instead of taking the time to de-escalate a situation, police are just zapping people who don't co-operate. Begg isn't an armchair quarterback; he was an RCMP officer for 23 years. And he, too, was an initial supporter, describing the Taser as "a very valuable alternative to shooting someone with a firearm" when the pilot project was launched.

But that's now how the Taser has been used. The provincial inquiry was ordered after the death of Robert Dzienkanski at Vancouver's airport. Video evidence showed police made no effort to defuse the situation.

Earlier this month police zapped an 82-year-old man, who needs oxygen just to walk, as he lay in a Kamloops hospital bed. He was delusional because he couldn't catch his breath and refused to drop a knife with a three-inch blade. But he wasn't enough of a danger to prevent an RCMP officer from approaching close enough to press the Taser against his stomach and zap him three times.

And Vancouver's transit police have tasered people, including fare evaders, for being "non-compliant." That policy, changed last week, highlights the underlying problem.

As the death toll mounted, B.C.'s Police Complaints Commissioner did a review of Taser use and recommended clear limits. People had to be "actively resisting" officers before they could be hit with the electric charge. The Solicitor General's Ministry claimed the new policy was in place. But all it did was send a one-page letter to police chiefs. As the transit police confirmed, the policy was widely and blatantly ignored. (Transit police even ignored a call to testify at the public inquiry until Solicitor General John van Dongen ordered the force to appear.)

Anyway, the policy is irrelevant for most British Columbians. About 70 per cent of them are policed by some 8,000 RCMP officers. The force does not accept any civilian oversight and refuses to allow the provincial government to set policies.

The Taser is still a potentially valuable tool. But seven people have died in B.C. after being the weapon was used on them; more than 300 in North America. Police continue to insist there is no risk, and use it accordingly. Many continue to reject the notion of civilian control or oversight.

It's a dangerous combination.

Footnote: Taser International continues to insist the only risk from using the weapon is that the victim might fall and be injured and tells police to use it on that basis. This week, two cardiologists told the inquiry the stun guns could "almost certainly" cause heart attacks.

RCMP use of tasers has more than doubled in past two years

May 19, 2008
Marianne White, Canwest News Service

While the RCMP is on the hot seat at the inquiry probing the use of Tasers in British Columbia following the death of Polish immigrant Robert Dziekanski, documents from the Mounties show their use of stun guns has more than doubled across Canada between 2005 and 2007.

According to documents obtained under the Access to Information Act by Canwest News Service, the overall use of Tasers by the RCMP soared to 1,119 incidents in 2006 and 1,414 in 2007, compared to only 597 incidents in 2005.

The majority of the incidents took place in western Canada where the force does a lot of front-line policing -- Quebec and Ontario have their own provincial forces.

About a third of the RCMP use of Tasers occurred in B.C., the province where Mounties deployed their 50,000-volt weapon the most. The use of Tasers in B.C. jumped from 218 incidents in 2005, to 406 in 2006 and a high of 496 in 2007.

When you look at the use of Tasers per capita, B.C. still comes first in the country with 11.26 incidents per 100,000 people. P.E.I. comes second with 11.18 incidents per 100,000 people, followed closely by Manitoba at 10.83, New Brunswick at 10.78, Saskatchewan at 10.76 and Alberta at 10.64.

Former B.C. premier Ujjal Dosanjh, now a Liberal MP and public-safety critic who is sitting on a parliamentary committee examining stun gun use in Canada, said he is deeply worried by this dramatic increase in his province as well as everywhere else in the country.

"What we see is that the Taser is now being used as a substitute for the good-old traditional talking by police, or the baton or pepper spray," said Mr. Dosanjh.

The RCMP have been under fire for months over the death of Mr. Dziekanski who received multiple electrical jolts from Mounties stun guns at the Vancouver airport last year. An amateur video of the incident showing the 40-year old writhing on the floor provoked an international outcry.

The national force was also criticized last week at a B.C. inquiry into the use of Tasers for being trigger-happy and using the stun gun as a compliance tool.

Mr. Dziekanski's mother, Zofia Cisowski, told the inquiry she holds the RCMP responsible for her son's death. "I know my son would not die if he was not Tasered," she said during a short, but very emotional, testimony.

As questions are mounting about the safety and effectiveness of the stun guns, a review of the Taser incident reports shows the RCMP falls short of providing answers to those who criticize its use of the controversial weapon.

Officers are required to fill out a form every time they fire or draw a Taser. In the more than 4,000 reports filed since the Taser was introduced in 2001, the RCMP blacked out the injuries suffered by stun-gunned suspects as well as the summary of events that could have shed some light on how and why the officers use the Tasers.

Some summaries are totally blank, while others give very little information such as "members responded to call" or simply "intoxicated."

The police force cites the need to protect privacy to explain why it removed basic details from its reports. "We have to strike a balance between the individual rights to privacy and releasing information. If we release information about a person that has been Tasered in a small community, maybe someone will come out and say ‘Hey, I know that person'. So that's where we are getting into difficulties," said RCMP spokeswoman Sgt. Nathalie Deschenes.

In the incidents reports obtained by Canwest, the RCMP also censored the injuries suffered by people, if the incident involved a mental health crisis and what police tried before resorting to the stun gun.

The reports did show that more than half of the suspects were under the influence of alcohol or drugs when they were Tasered and that they were not armed.

The RCMP defended the stun gun that is often seen as the best option to neutralize a threat without having to draw guns. "There are no cookie-cutter scenarios where the Taser will be used or not. It's not because a person is under the influence of alcohol or drugs that he or she will be Tasered, it all depends on the circumstances," said Sgt. Deschenes.

Mr. Dosanjh, who testified at the B.C. inquiry last week, said there should be stricter guidelines about when police can deploy Tasers. "The use of Tasers has gone up in the last few years partly because the forces feel freer to use them under circumstances where they are not needed," Mr. Dosanjh said.

The RCMP said they don't plan to divulge more details of the incidents reports, such as what the officer did before resorting to the Taser.

The RCMP have some 2,800 Tasers and more than 9,000 officers are trained to use it.

Taser boss invokes Star Trek

May 15, 2008
By Carlito Pablo, straight.com

Strip away Tom Smith’s corporate persona as chair of Taser International Inc., and you’ll find an unabashed Star Trek fan.

When Smith fielded questions from the media after defending the 50,000-volt stun gun before a provincial inquiry on May 12, the Arizona-based executive couldn’t help but make a reference to the TV science-fiction series that he and his brother and company cofounder, Rick, grew up watching.

“We believe today we are the wired version of the Star Trek phaser, trying to get to that point where we’re using the minimum amount of force necessary to end the confrontation as safely as possible,” Smith told reporters at SFU’s Morris J. Wosk Centre for Dialogue in downtown Vancouver.

In the Star Trek universe, phasers are energy-beam weapons that can be set to stun, kill, or even vaporize an enemy. Smith claimed that in the real world and in the hands of law enforcers, Tasers are nonlethal devices that are designed only to incapacitate a person at the receiving end of two metal probes attached to wires.

Earlier in the day, Smith told the inquiry, being conducted by former B.C. Court of Appeal justice Thomas Braidwood, that Tasers aren’t entirely risk-free because they cause people to fall down. However, he stressed that the use of the stun gun actually prevents other injuries and even deaths caused by other weapons, primarily firearms.

But according to Vancouver lawyer and police watchdog Cameron Ward, Tasers have been involved in far too many deaths across North America since they were introduced.

“Many of those deaths, if not most of them, remained unexplained,” Ward told the Georgia Straight at the sidelines of the inquiry, which was ordered following the death of Polish immigrant Robert Dziekanski after he was tasered at the airport.

Ward represents the family of Robert Bagnell, who died in June 2004 after he was shot with a Taser by the Vancouver police.

According to a blog maintained by Bagnell’s sister, Patti Gillman, 344 North Americans, including 20 Canadians, have died since 1999 after they were shocked with the device. “Twenty-seven people have died in the U.S. since the beginning of this year,” the TNT—Truth…Not Tasers blog states. “Seventy-seven North Americans (that we know of) died in 2007, five of them Canadian.”

Amid often-conflicting claims about the safety of Tasers, the Canadian Medical Association Journal published an editorial on May 1 panning Taser International–funded studies indicating that the weapon is safe.

“They even set up demonstration booths where, like some bizarre extreme sport, people line up voluntarily to experience a taser shock for themselves,” the editorial stated. “Notably, volunteers are almost always shocked in the back and not in the chest, where the electrodes might cross the heart, nor do the volunteers experience the repeated and sustained shocks often used in the field, a feature that has led the United Nations to classify the Taser as a form of torture.”

The CMAJ also stated that new and independent research is needed to settle the issue of whether or not Tasers kill.

On May 12, Liberal MP Ujjal Dosanjh also appeared before the Braidwood. As B.C.’s attorney general, Dosanjh approved the introduction of the stun gun in the province in 1999. Dosanjh told the inquiry that he is “absolutely disappointed” that back then he was briefed that Tasers were safe and that their use had been thoroughly researched. “Now we know that is not true,” he said.

Dosanjh told reporters after his testimony that “all public officials are at the mercy of those who advise them.”

Although noting that there is “absolutely no conclusive evidence that Tasers don’t kill”, Dosanjh also said that he doesn’t want to “take away Tasers from the police forces”.

“I want them properly restrained in terms of the use,” he said. “I want the police officers really properly trained, and I want better research, and more and better reporting. If they don’t do any of those things, I believe that there ought to be a moratorium placed on the use of Tasers.”

Outside the Thomas Braidwood inquiry, three key players offered their views about the use of Tasers

Ujjal Dosanjh
Vancouver South MP, Liberal public-safety critic, and former B.C. premier and attorney general
“I think that ultimately the Taser is a device that [police] may be required to use under appropriate circumstances. The fact is that the RCMP and other police forces need to have stronger national standards for using these kinds of devices. We need to do more research. You want to know under what conditions they ought to use it and what the guidelines ought to be.”

Tom Smith
Chairman of the board and cofounder, Taser International Inc.
“We’ve done as long as 45 seconds in human exposures. We’re not seeing increased risks. I was the first person ever hit by our technology, in 1993. I’ve been tasered numerous times. We’ve had a number of studies that have been ongoing. I encourage studies. It just again goes back to this being the most studied nonlethal technology available today in the world.”

Cameron Ward
Vancouver lawyer and police watchdog who represents Robert Bagnell’s family
“The device is being used far too frequently, and not as an alternative to lethal force but as a tool for compliance. Before 2000, police were able to deal with nonviolent people in distress by talking to them and, if necessary, by using soft physical force. What we’re finding is that they’re using it as a weapon of first resort. They’re using it before making any attempt to talk people down or subdue them in conventional ways.”

EDITORIAL: Impose protocols for use of tasers

May 14, 2008
Times Colonist (Victoria, BC)

Even those who support police use of Tasers should recognize that current policies and controls are inadequate, failing even to acknowledge the real risks involved anytime the stun guns are fired.

The case of Frank Lasser should end any argument. Lasser is 82 and frail. He's had bypass surgery and needs oxygen at all times. He becomes delusional when he can't breathe properly. That apparently happened after he was admitted to hospital in Kamloops with pneumonia this month. At 5:30 a.m., he began to threaten staff and pulled out a pocket knife with a three-inch blade.

They called the RCMP. When Lasser wouldn't drop the knife, officers zapped him three times with a Taser as he lay in his hospital bed. They pressed the stun gun against his stomach. The RCMP maintains this was the only safe way to handle a potentially dangerous situation.

But, as Liberal MP Ujjal Dosanjh testified at a provincial inquiry into Taser use this week, this was not the use proposed when Tasers were introduced in B.C. in 2000.

Dosanjh, who as attorney general approved the use of the weapons after a pilot project in Victoria, said he was told the devices were completely safe. That appears to be untrue. Seven people have died in B.C. after being zapped with the stun guns, 300 in North America. Recent research suggests the devices affect the heart.

And police said the Taser would be used in "assaultive and combative situations, where a person is a danger to others," Dosanjh told a B.C. inquiry into the weapon's use.

When Victoria police described their six-month trial, those were the kind of cases they cited. Tasers were used to subdue a naked, crazed man who attacked officers with a 10-inch spike and deer antlers to disarm another man who was in the act of driving a dagger into his own chest, they reported.

But since 2000, Tasers have been increasingly used as a quick method to control the merely difficult. Police insist there is no risk in using the devices and operate accordingly.

The government's current guidelines, brought in after a Taser review by the Police Complaints Commissioner in 2005, say the devices should not be used unless people are actively resisting police. It's not enough that they're ignoring commands, gesturing wildly or shouting.

But the guidelines, and other recommendations in the report, have been largely ignored. Vancouver's transit police are authorized to Taser anyone who is non-compliant, even fare evaders.

And the RCMP, which provides policing for more than 70 per cent of British Columbians, doesn't accept the right of the provincial government to set any guidelines for Taser use.

Tasers should have a place in the police arsenal. They can increase the safety of both offenders and officers, offering an alternative to pepper spray or clubs in some situations.

But they carry risks, which police refuse to acknowledge.

And Taser use in B.C. is, in a literal sense, out of control. Government use-of-force rules are dismissed by the RCMP and widely ignored by other forces.

That should not be allowed to continue. If the province and police can't agree on an effective, accepted protocol for Taser use, the only solution left would be a return to the ban that existed until 2000.

Tasers safer than police batons, guns, inquiry told

May 13, 2008
Brian Hutchinson, National Post
Jason Payne, For Canwest News Service

VANCOUVER - Tom Smith is the smiling Dapper Dan from Scottsdale, Ariz., who makes and markets Tasers, and who must therefore leave his office and defend them. Not a pleasant task, one might think; these days, the conducted energy weapon is the object of scorn and fear.

Were they still alive, gunsmiths Horace Smith and Daniel Wesson would face less criticism, fewer accusations about their gear. But Mr. Smith of Taser fame was barely tested yesterday, at a provincial inquiry examining the use of his products in British Columbia.

The young chairman of Taser International Inc. cruised through a 55-minute presentation -- one, he admitted afterwards, that he delivers a lot, dozens of times a year in fact.

He's got it down pat and it showed. He spoke so rapidly and with such force that the commissioner of the inquiry, retired judge Thomas Braidwood, had to interject and suggest he slow down.

"This is not an endurance competition," he said.

Flashing statistics and bar graphs on to a projection screen, Mr. Smith insisted that Tasers are safer than such other police tools as batons, pepper spray and firearms, when it comes to subduing and apprehending criminal suspects and violent individuals.

College students are as likely to receive an injury playing basketball, as is a person to receive an injury from a Taser, the company chairman maintained.

His computer and video-assisted demonstration made the point, over and over, that Tasers are not the evil devices the public has come to loathe, and which reporters have to come rely upon as an endless source of hair-raising copy.

Placed strategically on Mr. Smith's left was a 20-centimetre-thick binder filled with independent scientific studies. These, he said, lend credence to his company's assertion that Tasers, while not harmless, are not as dangerous as people might think.

It's a fact that the proper use of Tasers rarely results in death, or even injury. That's why so many police agencies -- 12,500 from more than 40 countries at last count -- have bought the devices, Mr. Smith said. Sales are booming. Last year, its best ever, Taser International had revenues of $100.7-million. This year, sales are on a record-breaking pace.

Meanwhile, the lawsuits pile up. Most are discarded. "Six more product-liability suits were dismissed during the first quarter, representing a total of 67 wrongful death or injury suits that have been dismissed or judgment entered in favour of the Company through the first quarter," Taser International noted in a recent securities filing.

Born on a U. S. air force base in 1967, Mr. Smith was, growing up, a Star Wars and Star Trek geek. He wondered how techno-gizmos like "phasers" might be deployed in violent confrontations. His mother, he said yesterday, relied on a Doberman pinscher guard dog for protection; he looked to technology instead.

He formed Taser International with his brother in 1993, after buying the technology from its inventor. A number of improvements have been made since the clunky Tasertron was introduced. That first model was "more of a pain compliance device," Mr. Smith told the inquiry. Later models, including today's best-selling Taser X-26, are far better at disabling targets, temporarily turning their musculature to jelly.

Contrary to testimony delivered at the inquiry on Friday, there is no credible evidence that the electric jolt from a Taser can affect the human heart, Mr. Smith said. To emphasize the point, he pulled out the power source that his products rely upon to shoot 50,000 volts into a target. It's just a simple camera battery, he noted.

Pepper spray and police batons can be far more sinister than the X-26, Mr. Smith said. He played a few video clips to punch home the point. In one five-year-old scene, Nathaniel Jones, a black man in Cincinnati, is pummelled to death by stick-wielding police officers.

The inquiry audience was then shown the brighter side of police work involving Tasers. Mr. Smith pressed a button on his laptop. Up popped the image of "a mental subject" with knives in both hands, receiving a good Tasering by police inside a bathroom. The man was incapacitated, handcuffed and "returned to a mental hospital" with no harm inflicted, apparently.

Not shown during Mr. Smith's info-packed session was the video still on every-one's mind-- the one made with a cellphone last autumn at Vancouver International Airport. It led to this inquiry, before Commissioner Braidwood, and shows an agitated Polish immigrant named Robert Dziekanski being Tasered by RCMP officers. He soon died in their custody, after being manhandled. His death, while obviously accidental, sparked a huge outcry.

But the present inquiry is not tasked with examining the Dziekanski incident and death; that is to come later, at a second inquiry headed by Mr. Braidwood.

That left Mr. Smith free to complete his polished take on Taser use. After answering a few mild-mannered questions from Mr. Braidwood and from the inquiry's appointed counsel (Q: Are short people more in danger of getting hurt than others? A: Um, no), he walked from the inquiry room unscathed.

The inquiry next heard from Liberal MP Ujjal Dosanjh, who, as B. C.'s attorney-general in 2000, approved the use of Tasers by police in this province. He was misinformed, he said yesterday, about their risks, and under what circumstances they might be deployed.

"One makes decisions based on the information one gets," he shrugged.

The Taser decision is one he now regrets. The inquiry continues today.

Reposition taser, Dosanjh urges

May 13, 2008
Neal Hall, VANCOUVER SUN

Former B.C. premier Ujjal Dosanjh said at a Taser inquiry Monday that there should be stricter guidelines about when police can deploy Tasers.

"I believe this particular tool must be repositioned, higher up [the police use-of-force continuum]," he told inquiry commissioner Thomas Braidwood, a retired appeal court judge.

He also recommended better training of police in the use of Tasers and setting national standards for Taser use.

Dosanjh, now a Liberal MP and public-safety critic who is sitting on a parliamentary committee examining Taser use in Canada, recalled he was B.C.'s attorney-general when he first allowed Tasers to be used by police.

"I was given several assurances that the Taser was absolutely safe to use," he told the inquiry, adding he now knows that seven people have died in B.C. after receiving one or more Taser jolts, which incapacitates an individual through a five-second electrical shock.

"The research to date is inadequate and in some cases misleading," Dosanjh said.

He questioned whether Taser use can cause heart arrhythmia or sometimes death, adding: "I'm not a scientist or expert in the use of force."

When first approved for use in B.C. in 2000, the Taser was supposed to be used sparingly by police in "assaultive and combative situations, where a person is a danger to others," Dosanjh explained.

But in recent years there has been "usage creep" and the use of the weapons has shot up, he said.

"It is also being used in situations where it wasn't contemplated," Dosanjh said, citing the use of Tasers by local transit police on fare evaders. "That is something I would have never imagined.

"It is being used as a substitute for ordinary, old-fashioned policing or talking to people."

Dosanjh told the inquiry that the onus should be on the manufacturer, Taser International, to conclusively prove there is no evidence that Tasers can kill people.

More than 300 people in North America, among them 20 in Canada and seven in B.C., have died after being jolted by a Taser.

Earlier in the day, Tom Smith, chair of Taser International, based in Scottsdale, Arizona, told the inquiry that Tasers are like air bags, which save lives during car crashes but occasionally contribute to the death of a person.

"Are Tasers risk-free? No, they cause people to fall down," Smith told the inquiry, pointing out that Tasers save 70 lives for every life lost.

Smith said studies show Tasers reduce the number of injuries to officers and suspects being arrested.

He said police forces such as Cincinnati, since adopting Tasers, reported officer injuries have dropped 75 per cent, suspect injuries are down by 40 per cent and use-of-force complaints against police are down 50 per cent.

Smith said it is a myth that there have been no independent studies of Taser use.

There have 129 medical and field studies, he said, with less than 20 per cent funded by Taser International.

"I certainly encourage more studies," Smith told reporters after his presentation. "This is the most studied non-lethal force option in the world."

He pointed out that Amnesty International is one of Taser's biggest critics but it has not funded any scientific research to support its allegations.

Smith said one study looked at a continuous Taser shock of 45 seconds, which found no evidence of increased risk.

"You show me the science that says risk increases with multiple exposures," he told reporters.

He said the death of a Polish immigrant Robert Dziekanski last Oct. 14 at Vancouver International Airport was a tragic event that prompted the current inquiry, but it remains unclear what killed the man.

The Dziekanski incident was captured on video by a bystander, resulting in a international public outcry.

The inquiry could result in changes to Taser policy for municipal police forces, sheriffs and provincial corrections staff, but has no jurisdiction over the federally regulated RCMP.

Dosanjh told the inquiry that it impractical to have two police complaint processes in B.C. -- one for municipal police and another for the RCMP, which polices two-thirds of B.C., effectively making it a provincial police force.

He suggested the RCMP contract is coming up for renewal, so it could be negotiated to harmonize the civilian-oversight processes.

"The confidence in the trust between the RCMP and Canadians has been sorely tested," Dosanjh said.

More taser scrutiny 'great,' stun gun manufacturer says

May 13, 2008
IAN BAILEY, Globe and Mail

VANCOUVER — The chairman of Taser International's board is welcoming independent study of his company's devices, but suggests there is already a fair balance of independent research and his company's sponsored reviews of the stun guns.

Tom Smith's comments were made yesterday in response to recent suggestions by the Canadian Medical Association Journal that the Arizona-based company was relying on its own sponsored research to prove its devices are safe.

Mr. Smith, in Vancouver to testify before the provincial Braidwood inquiry into taser use, noted that only about 20 per cent of taser studies have been sponsored by his company, which produced the device used by police on Polish immigrant Robert Dziekanski in an Oct. 14 incident that prompted the Braidwood probe and other continuing inquiries.

But Mr. Smith said, in his comments before the hearing and to reporters outside, that his company has had no hand in the remaining research, which allows for a broader perspective.

"I encourage studies. We think it's great. And we're seeing more of them done, and there are a lot being done and there are a lot being done independent of us, and I think it again goes back to this being the most studied non-lethal technology available today in the world," said Mr. Smith, who co-founded Taser International with his brother, Rick.

"I would certainly encourage more independent studies. Less than 20 per cent of them out there have been funded by us. That means 80 per cent have been done independent of our company, including here in Canada."

Mr. Smith referred to a total 129 studies of tasers.

In an editorial published a few weeks ago, the Canadian Medical Association Journal suggested Taser International has sponsored "just about all the research" to "prove the taser's safety." It's author, Matthew Stanbrook, an assistant professor, researcher and specialist in respirology at Toronto Western Hospital, called for federally funded, independent research to answer many questions related to the safety of tasers.

Those questions have become a pressing concern since Mr. Dziekanski died at Vancouver International Airport after being tasered during a confrontation with four Mounties, who were called to the scene after he began acting erratically.

The exact cause of the death of the 40-year-old man has not yet been released, but questions about police use of tasers have prompted a number of reviews.

Mr. Smith also acknowledged that tasers are not foolproof, and that there is a risk of death associated with them. However, he framed that chance more around circumstantial factors than anything inherent in the devices.

"They are not risk free. They do cause incapacitation. They can cause somebody to fall to the ground," he said.

"We cover the general warnings of possible outcomes that can be the result of being exposed to a taser, so in a general sense, they are safe, but they are not without risk," he told the inquiry.

Pressed further on whether death is the possible outcome of a taser jolt, Mr. Smith said: "I would never say never. It's certainly a possibility of any interaction that includes confrontation."

Reminded that tasers have been cited as a contributing cause of the deaths of 300 people - including 20 in Canada - Mr. Smith said there is a distinction between contributing and an actual cause of death.

Former B.C. attorney-general Ujjal Dosanjh, also appearing before the inquiry, said he was assured tasers were an appropriate idea when he authorized their use in B.C. in 2000.

He said staff told him the devices were backed by solid research, were safe and would be placed high up on the continuum of use-of-force options.

"All three propositions have turned out not to be true," he said.

"Am I disappointed? Yes. Absolutely disappointed because when you are in the public realm ... making these kinds of decisions, you depend on people coming in, giving you advice based on research they have conducted. Should there have been more research? Absolutely. Did I know that at the time? No."

Mr. Dosanjh, now a Liberal MP and public safety critic, is calling for more research on tasers, and better guidelines on their use. He said there should be a moratorium if these suggestions are not acted on.

Details of Vancouver airport Tasering omitted from censored RCMP report

May 12, 2008
Jim Bronskill; Sue Bailey, The Canadian Press

The RCMP call it Occurrence No. 2007-34748.

Millions of people around the world know it as the infamous Taser zapping at the Vancouver International Airport last October that sparked so many questions about Robert Dziekanski's death.

The Mounties have stripped any new answers from a heavily censored report on the high-profile stun gun incident, obtained by The Canadian Press and CBC under the Access to Information Act.

Dziekanski died in the early hours of Oct. 14 after the RCMP hit the 40-year-old Polish immigrant with a Taser and pinned him to the airport floor. Police fired the electronic stun gun's metal probes less than 30 seconds after arriving on the scene of a sweaty, agitated Dziekanski, who had earlier tossed a small table and computer monitor in frustration.

Opposition MPs and human rights groups have criticized the RCMP for suppressing details of Taser cases, including injuries suffered by people stunned and whether they were experiencing a mental health crisis at the time.

The national police force has gone even further with the Dziekanski report, deleting information it routinely releases in other cases.

Though Dziekanski's name is struck from the four-page form, it is readily identifiable as his case, listing basic details well known to those who watched an amateur video of the RCMP arriving on the scene and shooting a Taser X26 at Dziekanski, who quickly crumpled in a heap.

Absent from the report is the name and rank of the officer who fired the Taser, the name of his supervisor, details about the duration of the firing, and the number of times the weapon was used in stun mode - a contact Tasering that's akin to leaning on a hot stove.

A written summary of the incident has been blanked out along with assessments as to whether use of the Taser helped the RCMP either "avoid use of lethal force" or "avoid injuries to subject or Police."

A passage about whether Dziekanski was armed or not has also been excised. One witness says he was waving a stapler at police.

New information is scant. The form says the RCMP officer issued the standard verbal command, "Police. Stop, or you will be hit with 50,000 volts of electricity." The lighting conditions are described as "Good artificial light." And the serial number of the Taser was X00-2226496.

In a letter accompanying the form, the RCMP says it invoked exemptions under the Access to Information Act to protect the privacy of the person stunned and to guard confidences about the force's investigations and weapons.

The RCMP did not return a phone call Sunday seeking comment on why it censored more information than usual. The deletions may, however, be due to the fact the Crown is still deciding whether to lay charges in the case following completion of a homicide probe.

Liberal public safety critic Ujjal Dosanjh said regardless of the investigation the RCMP should tell the public whether Dziekanski was armed and how many times he was hit with the Taser.

"I don't see any reason why there should be an impediment to releasing information about how many times Mr. Dziekanski was stunned," he said in an interview Sunday. "Why would that be a problem, unless that was a fact in dispute?"

RCMP Commissioner William Elliott said last month the Mounties have been forced to make tough choices on how much to publicly disclose about Taser incidents.

Elliott said some information about stun gun use cannot be made public. And he noted the Commission for Public Complaints Against the RCMP has access to full versions of all of the force's Taser reports.

Insp. Troy Lightfoot, an RCMP spokesman, said in March that internal analysis of the forms concluded the painful weapons were being used correctly.

Taser guns not tested by police: CTV finds

May 6, 2008
CTV British Columbia

Even though they are often used as restraining devices on members of the public, police do not carry out routine tests on Taser guns, a CTV News investigation has found.

It means that police officers are unaware of the true electrical output of what has proven to be a lethal weapon.

This information has come to light in the wake of the death in 2004 of Robert Bagnell, who was killed almost instantly after being shocked by a Vancouver police Taser.

Questions about the safety of Tasers have also been sparked by the recent death of Robert Dziekanski at Vancouver International Airport last fall. The polish immigrant is one of 20 Canadians who have died after being shocked by a Taser gun.

Engineering firm Intertek tested the two weapons fired during the Bagnell incident. Their research found while one Taser performed within a normal electrical output, the other was 30 times higher.

Taser International, a U.S. stun gun manufacturer, later disputed Intertek's test results. Since then, the two Bagnell Tasers were sent to the Canadian Police Research Centre in Ottawa for further examination. That was two years ago.

Victoria Const. Mike Massine, considered one of Canada's foremost police experts on stun guns, says Tasers are not tested by police.

"I'm assuming (Tasers) are tested at the factory," he said. "We don't have the mechanism to do that."

Professor William Dunford of UBC's electrical engineering department was surprised to learn that police don't regularly check their Tasers.

"It's reasonable that testing be done once a month or once a week, whatever is appropriate," Dunford said. "You look at how these things fail -- that's the whole engineering method."

Intertek's data came as a surprise to Federal Lliberal Party safety critic Ujjal Dosanjh.

"If they've known about this and have done nothing -- that is absolutely wrong," Dosanjh said.

Ten years ago, Const. Massine took part in Canada's first Taser trial. The six-month study set the stage for the purchase of the weapons by police forces coast to coast.

"How safe are they? It really depends on who you talk to," Massine told CTV News. "If you have pro-Taser people, they'll say they're safe. If you have anti-Taser people, they're gonna say they aren't safe."

With a report from CTV British Columbia's Peter Grainger

Vancouver transit riders tasered for not paying fares

April 16, 2008
ROD MICKLEBURGH, Globe and Mail

VANCOUVER — The country's only armed transit police have been tasering passengers who try to avoid paying fares. According to documents provided in response to a Freedom of Information request, police patrolling public transit in the Metro Vancouver area have used tasers 10 times in the past 18 months, including five occasions when victims had been accosted for riding free.

In one incident, a non-paying passenger was tasered after he held onto a railing on the SkyTrain platform and refused to let go. "After several warnings to the subject to stop resisting arrest and the subject failing to comply with the officers' commands, the taser was deployed and the subject was taken into control," said the report provided by TransLink, the region's transit authority.

An internal review of the incident concluded that the action taken by transit police officers complied with the force's policy and was within guidelines "set out in the National Use of Force Model," the report said.

On another occasion, a passenger was tasered when he fled from police who found him without a payment receipt during a "fare blitz." This time, however, the passenger got away because, as recounted in the report, "the Taser was ineffective due to the subject's clothing and [he] escaped the custody of the officers."

Politicians and civil-liberties activists alike decried the use of tasers on individuals who were attempting merely to avoid paying a fine for not buying a ticket to ride. "I think it's absolutely uncalled for, absolutely reprehensible, and the police should not be doing that," federal Liberal public safety critic Ujjal Dosanjh said in Ottawa yesterday.

On the face of it, the use of tasers by transit police here is far outside guidelines that say they should be used only if someone is suicidal, violent or about to injure himself or someone else, Mr. Dosanjh said.

"Their current use is absolutely inappropriate," he said, adding that the latest revelations, coming after a storm of recent controversy over taser use by regular police forces across the country, have brought him close to calling for a moratorium on the powerful stun guns. "This is the kind of example that would lead people like me, who have so far resisted asking for a moratorium, to actually call for that," he said.

Murray Mollard of the B.C. Civil Liberties Association, which supports a moratorium, said he was shocked by the news of transit passengers being tasered. "To apply a taser on someone fleeing the scene while trying to evade a fine is, quite frankly, an outrageous abuse of this weapon," Mr. Mollard said. "Do we really need police officers with guns and tasers using them in the context of fare evasion? I don't think so. This really is very hard to believe." But he stopped short of blaming the police. "They do what police do," he said. Instead, he pinned the fault on cabinet ministers responsible for the police who refuse to restrict taser use.

In a move that sparked heated debate in the province, the government gave the green light for transit cops to carry weapons 2½ years ago. There are about 125 officers on the transit force. The region's popular, elevated SkyTrain system operates on a partial honour system, without turnstiles. However, riders caught without a ticket are subject to heavy fines, as high as $175. Officers ask passengers at random for proof of payment.

Yesterday, the head of the RCMP admitted the police force did not do a good job making information public about taser use, and vowed that changes will be made.

"Frankly we did not handle this matter very well," Commissioner William Elliott told the Canadian Club of Ottawa. "We should not have needed two kicks at the can. We must learn from that and do better."

The taser controversy will be in the spotlight again today - the mother of Robert Dziekanski, the Polish immigrant who died after being tasered by the RCMP last year at Vancouver International Airport, is expected to testify before a parliamentary committee in Ottawa.

B.C. transit police stun fare cheaters with taser: documents

April 15, 2008
CBC News

Transit police on SkyTrain stations in Metro Vancouver have used Taser stun guns on passengers who didn't pay the fare and tried to run away, CBC News has learned.

Transit police have fired Tasers 10 times since January last year, and three cases involved non-violent suspects, according to internal police reports obtained by CBC News using access to information laws.

In one case, a person ran from transit cops during a check for free-riders and "the Taser was deployed as the subject fled," the documents say. Another person who didn't pay the fare was arrested but "grabbed onto the platform railing and refused to let go … the Taser was deployed."

A Taser may be used when "the situation demands control over a non-compliant, suicidal, potentially violent, or violent individual and lower force options were ineffective," according to the transit police policy.

Stunning someone without a transit ticket doesn't qualify as an appropriate use of a Taser, said Murray Mollard, executive director of the B.C. Civil Liberties Association. "I would call it a shocking abuse and misuse of a very significant weapon," Mollard told CBC News Tuesday.

Liberal MP Ujjal Dosanjh, who's on a federal committee reviewing the use of Tasers, said transit police have gone too far. "That's the example where Taser use has just gotten out of hand and I believe the government needs to actually bring them under some kind of control," he said.

Federal New Democrat MP Penny Priddy also called such a use of Taser "absolutely intolerable."

B.C.'s solicitor general didn't comment on whether transit police use of Tasers was justified, saying the officers must adhere to the same standards as other police when it comes to proper use of the Taser. "They are expected to conduct themselves in the same manner using the same tools as other police, and they are subject to the same review process [and] the same accountability through the office of the police commissioner," John van Dongen said.

Dosanjh said British Columbia should be proactive in ensuring SkyTrain police are using Tasers properly.

Van Dongen said he will wait for Ottawa's report on Tasers before taking any action.

Mounties release more taser data on weapons but shield details on injuries

April 14, 2008
CBC and The Canadian Press

OTTAWA - The RCMP continues to withhold crucial details of injuries to the people they stun with Tasers after coming under fire for being too secretive.

The national police force released a new batch of information Monday following a second look at what they tell Canadians about Taser use. The records contain more data on whether people hit with RCMP stun guns were carrying a weapon, and whether they had taken drugs or alcohol.

But the Mounties still refuse to release details of cuts, burns and bruises suffered by subjects in the more than 4,000 officer reports released under the Access to Information Act.

When incidents involved a mental health crisis, that was also stripped from the records.

The national police force was attacked by critics last month for deciding to stop disclosing such information.

Liberal public safety critic Ujjal Dosanjh said Monday he's "delighted" the RCMP has relented on some points but said the force is still deleting too many details that people have a right to know.


"I fail to see any rational reason for them to exclude those two items of information - mental health issues or injuries," he said. "I believe that we need to know whether or not in the continuing use of the Taser, people are being injured excessively. I think that's the core issue."

Controversy flared after a joint investigation by The Canadian Press and CBC found the Mounties were censoring key elements that must be recorded each time officers draw their electronic weapons.

RCMP Commissioner William Elliott then ordered "a further review" of the records "to determine if additional information" should be released.

Public Safety Minister Stockwell Day had sought and received assurances the RCMP would review the matter. The Mounties denied their hand was forced by the minister, saying they had already decided to re-examine the Taser forms.

Dosanjh said Monday the force has more work to do. "The RCMP first of all tried to withhold information, and I believe they were caught," he said. "People were rightly concerned, and they've now coughed up more information. I believe they've not gone far enough."

RCMP officers are supposed to fill out a form every time they fire - or even threaten to use - a Taser.

In a 2004 Alberta case in which a Mountie fired a stun gun, the officer noted the subject was later examined at a medical facility, one record released Monday shows. But the section of the form where a description of any injuries should be recorded is blank. The prongs fired by a Taser can cause cuts. In up-close stun mode, the weapon may burn the subject's skin. And people sometimes hit their heads when jolted by a Taser.

The electronic guns are dangerous weapons that the RCMP should have, Dosanjh said Monday. "But they should be able to only have that weapon if they're using it appropriately. And a very important way of distinguishing appropriate use from inappropriate use is whether or not a person is seriously injured."

The RCMP is also keeping secret the precise dates of incidents, revealing only the year they happened. The force has now disclosed some fragmentary information about what happened in each incident, but continues to leave out key parts of the story.

The summary of a 2003 Kamloops, B.C., case in which the RCMP stunned a person indicates only that he or she was "extremely intoxicated and combative."

In a letter accompanying the data released Monday, the RCMP said it invoked exemptions under the access law to protect the privacy of people hit with Tasers and to guard confidences about their investigations.

Insp. Troy Lightfoot, an RCMP spokesman, said last month that internal analysis of the forms concluded the painful weapons were being used correctly.

Scathing newspaper editorials and opposition critics said Canadians were being asked to blindly trust the Mounties.

Last November, a Canadian Press analysis of 563 cases between 2002 and 2005 found three in four suspects Tasered by the RCMP were unarmed.

Several of those reports suggested a pattern of stun-gun use as a convenient means of keeping drunk or rowdy people in line, rather than to defuse major clashes.

Twenty people in Canada have died soon after being Tasered.

Manufacturer Taser International stresses that its device has never been directly blamed for a death, although it has been cited as a contributing factor in several cases.

RCMP now plan to release more taser data

April 11, 2008
The Canadian Press

OTTAWA — The RCMP has done an about-face and decided to release more information about Taser use two weeks after a wave of criticism over secrecy about the electronic stun guns.

Const. Pat Flood, an RCMP spokeswoman, said Thursday the force planned to disclose additional details of Taser firings in response to requests under the Access to Information Act.

But there were early indications the Mounties would continue to withhold crucial points, including injuries to people hit with Tasers and the exact dates the incidents occurred.

A release planned for late Thursday was delayed without explanation.

Liberal public safety critic Ujjal Dosanjh said he hoped the Mounties were taking extra time so they could prepare to make public even more details. But he expressed concern that would not happen. "They should have actually been releasing this information the whole time. They're now releasing more - that is very good. They are still not releasing enough."

The RCMP said Thursday the latest batch of data would contain details of injuries to officers, but not the burns, cuts and bruises suffered by people zapped with Tasers.

"We want to know how many people are being injured per year in the use of the Tasers. Tasers are a dangerous, serious weapon," Dosanjh said. "Canadians have a right to be able to judge for themselves whether or not the continuing use of Tasers is appropriate."

The RCMP, stung by criticism from MPs and human rights advocates, decided earlier this month to rethink stripping Taser reports of key information. Commissioner William Elliott ordered "a further review" of recently released copies of forms detailing use of the electronic weapons "to determine if additional information" should be disclosed.

Public Safety Minister Stockwell Day had sought and received assurances the RCMP would review the matter. The Mounties denied their hand was forced by the minister, saying they had already decided to take a second look at the Taser forms.

The controversy unfolded after a joint investigation by The Canadian Press and CBC found the Mounties had begun censoring basic elements that must be recorded each time officers draw their electronic weapons. The force no longer revealed whether Tasered people were armed or not, the precise dates of firings, and whether the device caused any injuries.

As a result, Canadians know much less about who is being hit with the contentious 50,000-volt guns and under what circumstances.

Advocates of more openness said the names and addresses of Tasered people are already struck from the forms, making further deletions unnecessary.

Another RCMP spokesman, Insp. Troy Lightfoot, has said internal analysis of Taser reports concluded the painful weapons were being used correctly.

Newspaper editorials and opposition critics and newspaper editorials said that amounts to a "just-trust-us" approach.

Last November a Canadian Press analysis of 563 cases between 2002 and 2005 found three in four suspects Tasered by the RCMP were unarmed. Several of those reports suggested a pattern of stun-gun use as a convenient means of keeping drunk or rowdy people in line, rather than to defuse major clashes. Twenty people in Canada have died soon after being Tasered.

Manufacturer Taser International stresses that its device has never been directly blamed for a death, although it has been cited as a contributing factor in several cases.

MP blasts slow pace of taser investigation

April 4, 2008
Petti Fong, Toronto Star

An exasperated MP lashed out at the RCMP yesterday, saying the force has provided few answers on Taser use and its role in the death of a Polish immigrant at Vancouver airport last fall.

Bloc Québécois MP Serge Ménard is part of a House of Commons committee studying the case. "I'm extremely disappointed with your presentation," said Ménard after hearing one of the province's top RCMP officers give a talk about policing in B.C. "We are here to find out information on what occurred Oct. 13 and not to learn about general RCMP operations. I would like us to get to the heart of the matter."

Ménard, who is part of the standing committee on public safety and national security, said he wanted to hear from the RCMP about what procedures were followed the night Robert Dziekanski was confronted by four officers. He died after a Taser gun was used on him.

"We would have liked to hear certain information from you so we can see whether the proper procedures were followed and where the fault lies," said Ménard.

But the RCMP presentation fell short of providing answers about what happened the night Dziekanski died. "I'm sorry you're disappointed," said acting commissioner Al Macintyre. "But there are processes we're obliged to follow, a criminal investigation has not been completed, there is a coroner's investigation and evidence will be given under oath."

Macintyre said there is more work to be done and an official cause of death for Dziekanski, 40, hasn't been released yet.

Dziekanski died after spending hours lost at the Vancouver International Airport, unable to connect with his mother.

MPs were also taken on a step-by-step re-enactment of the path Dziekanski would have followed after he stepped off his flight from Poland for the first time as an immigrant to Canada.

Macintyre said there are at least 13 investigations underway, including one from the criminal division to determine whether charges should be laid, as well as a coroner's inquest and a public inquiry.

Committee member and Liberal public safety critic Ujjal Dosanjh said there still hasn't been an answer to the pressing question of whether this kind of incident can happen again.

"There is some frustration here that there has been usage creep," he said. "We were persuaded that Tasers would be used sparingly."