Dr. Pierre Savard, professor of biomedical engineering at Ecole Polytechnique de Montreal, and the recipient of a PhD from MIT, presented the results of his study to the Braidwood Commission of Inquiry today. Dr. Savard has concluded that “heart disease increases the probability of death after Taser shocks” and “studies on healthy subjects or healthy animals are insufficient to conclude that the Taser is entirely safe.”

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One logical question is, how did a potentially unsafe and lethal product get into the hands of law enforcement in Canada without any public consultation, safety testing, independent research, guidelines or restrictions imposed on its use as a non-lethal or “less than lethal” intermediate police weapon?

Another is, why can’t this device be subject to CSA certification in the same way that electric fence controllers, electronic animal restraint devices, are?

For over three years, I have been imploring officials in this province (the Chief Coroner, the Police Complaint Commissioner, the Attorney General, the Solicitor General, the Deputy Commissioner of the RCMP, the Chief Constable of the Vancouver Police Department) to stop the use of TASERS until rigorous independent scientific testing has been done, to no avail.

The Braidwood Commission Inquiry continues in Vancouver…