November 21 update: At least seven more people have died after being stunned with TASER weapons since Robert Dziekanski’s death was captured on video. They are Donald Clark, Asheville, North Carolina (Oct. 14), Quilem Registre, 39, Montreal, Quebec (Oct. 17), Stefan McMinn, 44, Hendersonville, North Carolina (Nov. 2), Jarrel Gray, 20, Frederick, Maryland (Nov. 18), Christian Allen, 21, Jacksonville, Florida (Nov. 18), Jesse Saenz, 20, New Mexico (Nov. 18) and Conrad Lowman, Jacksonville, Florida (Nov. 20). Every one of these men left behind a loving family, but none of their deaths were captured on videotape.

…..

November 22 update: A 45 year old Nova Scotia man, Howard Hyde, has died today after being Tasered the day before.

November 29 update: Another man is dead after being Tasered. The latest casualty is Ashley Stephens, 28, of Ocala, Florida.

…..

In keeping with its bullying tactics, TASER International Inc. of Scottsdale, Arizona says that it has issued 60 “legal demand letters” over the media’s interpretation of the events shown on this video, which depicts Polish immigrant Robert Dziekanski dying after being approached and Tasered by four RCMP officers on October 14, 2007:

Here’s what Chairman Tom Smith said:

“We are taken aback by the number of media outlets that have irresponsibly published conclusive headlines blaming the TASER device and / or the law enforcement officers involved as the cause of death before completion of the investigation. These sensationalistic media reports completely ignore the earmark symptoms of excited delirium shown in the video. TASER International is transmitting over 60 legal demand letters requiring correction of these false and misleading headlines and will take other actions as appropriate. These unsubstantiated, false headlines mislead the public and could adversely influence public policy in ways which could place the lives of both law enforcement and the public at greater risk,” concluded Tom Smith, Founder and Chairman of the Board of TASER International, Inc.

August 16, 2008 update: 60 more people have died since Robert Dziekanski after being Tasered by police, including five Canadians…

TASER International, Inc., the Scottsdale, Arizona public company (NASDAQ: TASR) that makes the controversial stun gun of the same name, wages an aggressive and misleading PR campaign to persuade the public that its product is safe. It has enlisted law enforcement members in its promotional efforts, giving many of them cash payments and stock options. TASER International executives dress in funereal black and hold flashy promotions, like the poker and Playboy parties advertised below:

Is there substance behind the glitz? The death of a law-abiding Polish immigrant at Vancouver International Airport, the sixth man to die in British Columbia after being Tasered, has again raised some public concerns about the weapon’s safety. Here are some things that TASER International and its customers would prefer remain unreported:

At least 286 people in North America have died since 2001 after being stunned by the TASER’s 50,000 volt discharge. Many of these cases involved multiple applications of electrical energy applied in “drive-stun” mode.

According to a study reported in the peer-reviewed journal NAFE entitled “Forensic Engineering Analysis of Electro-Shock Weapon Safety” (December 2005, p. 19), “we can conclude the Taser M18 M26 can be lethal when used in the drive-stun mode of operation and can kill when contrasted to the reference criteria contained in commercial consensus standards and in other scholarly publications”.

There is no way of knowing whether individual Taser weapons meet the manufacturer’s specifications. As there are no Canadian safety testing standards of any kind for the devices, it is entirely possible that some weapons discharge much more electrical energy than they are supposed to, and that police officers are unwittingly killing people as a result.

TASER and the law enforcement community often point to other factors that they say actually cause death, such as drug or alcohol use or a phenomenon they have coined “excited delirium”, which is not a recognised medical condition. TASER International says so-called “excited delirium” is a potentially fatal condition. Here are some questions: How many people have died of “excited delirium” in the last five years in situations that did not involve law enforcement? Do people only reach potentially lethal levels of excitement or delirium when they are accosted by peace officers?

The proponents of Tasers have not explained why a number of domestic animals, including dogs and pigs, died after being shocked. One such livestock fatality occurred earlier this year in Spokane, Washington, where a loose cow was repeatedly Tasered by sheriffs until it collapsed and died.

Tasers are arguably being overused by police. They have reportedly been used to shock children as young as six (in Florida) and an 82 year old woman was recently shocked in Chicago. Amnesty International studied 271 fatalities and found that the victim was unarmed in all but 22 of the cases. Most of these victims were no risk to anyone.

Clearly, Tasers are involved in taking, not saving, lives.

On November 7, 2007, lawyers representing the Defendants City of Vancouver, the Attorney General of British Columbia, the Greater Vancouver Transportation Authority, RAV Project Management Ltd. and InTransit BC Limited Partnership applied to strike the claims of the Plaintiff Susan Heyes Inc., dba Hazel & Co., as disclosing no reasonable claim. Their applications were dismissed by Mr. Justice Pitfield of the BC Supreme Court, meaning that the case can proceed forward. The Action (No. S054152, Vancouver Registry) is anticipated to proceed to trial in November of 2008.

The decision dismissing the applications sparked this exchange in the Legislature between MLA Gregor Robertson, a champion of small business, and Hon. Kevin Falcon, Minister of Transportation:

“G. Robertson: Yesterday this government paid lawyers to fight off the Cambie small business seeking damages in the B.C. Supreme Court from the devastating impact of Canada line construction. The lawyers actually attempted to have the merchants’ case thrown out on a technicality. So not only is this government destroying the small businesses, but they’re denying them their day in court. The judge, thankfully, ruled against this government and its Canada line partners, and the case will be heard.

My question to the Minister of Small Business and Revenue: how do you feel about writing big cheques to lawyers to continue your fight against small businesses rather than fairly compensating those merchants directly?

Hon. K. Falcon: The member well knows that we’re not going to comment on cases before courts…

Interjections.

Hon. K. Falcon: …but there’s more to come.

Interjections.

Mr. Speaker: Members.

Minister, just take your seat.

Hon. K. Falcon: The best part is to come.

Mr. Speaker: Please take your seat.

[1410]

Interjections.

Mr. Speaker: Members, let’s listen to the answer.

Hon. K. Falcon: I will say this. There is one big cheque we sure did write, and that was a cheque for $435 million to build the Canada line that they

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opposed. And I can tell you that our biggest problem with that project is going to be all the NDPers trying to cram up on the stage and claim credit when that opens.

Mr. Speaker: Member has a supplemental.

G. Robertson: It is absolutely deplorable that this government is letting the situation degenerate into a legal battle with small businesses. It is totally disrespectful of these hard-working families and of the whole province’s small business community. It’s also a horrendous waste of taxpayer dollars. The Premier and his Transportation Minister led the charge on the Canada line project from day one, and they created this mess.

Will the Transportation Minister stand up in this House today, show some leadership again and lead the funding partners in compensating the small businesses on Cambie?

Interjection.

Mr. Speaker: Member.

Hon. K. Falcon: You know, it’s always interesting when I listen to these opposition members, because so often what they say on that side is very different from what they did when they were in government. But the members might want to remind themselves that under the NDP, they also were building a rapid transit line. They may recall that. It was called the Millennium line.

I understand there were a number of small businesses that were impacted pretty dramatically, which were appealing to that government for exactly the support that he’s now espousing. It’s a mockery, Mr. Speaker, because they did nothing when they were in government.

I can tell you that what we are doing is building a line that will take 100,000 people a day out of their cars and into rapid transit. They opposed it. They’re going to try and claim credit on opening day, and they will not get that benefit.”

The Frank Paul Inquiry commenced today with opening statements by counsel for the participants. The opening statement of Mr. Ward, counsel for the United Native Nations Society, is reproduced below:

….

Mr. Commissioner, Mr. Eby and I are grateful for, and deeply honoured to have the opportunity to represent the interests of the United Native Nations Society at this Commission of Inquiry. For many years, the UNNS, along with other aboriginal groups and concerned individuals, urged the BC government to hold a public inquiry into the circumstances surrounding the death of Frank Joseph Paul.

The United Native Nations Society represents 40,500 members across British Columbia and is the province’s main, and often only, advocate for off-reserve aboriginal people. Frank Paul’s home reserve was in New Brunswick, but his home was in the streets of Vancouver. Advocates for UNNS worked on Frank Paul’s behalf while he was still alive and living near the IGA store at Maple and Broadway in Kitsilano. Their advocacy on behalf of Frank Paul did not end at the time of his death, and it will not end until he and his family have had a full and fair hearing of the facts, and any parties responsible for his death are held accountable by our justice system.

Frank Paul is one of many off-reserve aboriginal people assisted by UNNS on what would generously be described as a shoestring budget. The absence of aboriginal-run shelters, the shortage of aboriginal housing, and the lack of aboriginal-run treatment and detoxification is a reality that is felt by the UNNS and its constituency every day. This shortage of resources for this population, widely recognized as the most poor, and most marginalized in our society, must be addressed. For these reasons, among many others, the following off-reserve aboriginal support organizations have endorsed the UNNS’s attendance at this hearing, and its efforts to bring meaning and justice to the life and death of Frank Paul:
• The Aboriginal Homelessness Steering Committee;
• The Aboriginal Mother Centre;
• The Circle of Eagles Lodge;
• Healing our Spirit;
• Helping Spirit Lodge;
• The Knowledgeable Aboriginal Youth Alliance Society;
• Lu’ma Native Housing;
• The Pacific Association of First Nations Women;
• The Vancouver Aboriginal Friendship Centre Society;
• The Vancouver Aboriginal Transformative Justice Program;
• Vancouver Native Health Society; and
• The Vancouver Native Housing Society.

….

Mr. Commissioner, we know that Frank Joseph Paul, age 47, an off-reserve aboriginal person of no fixed address, died some time after 9:00 p.m. on December 5, 1998. His lifeless body was found in an alley the next morning by someone searching for a missing cat.

Now, nearly nine years after Mr. Paul died, this Commission of Inquiry has finally been convened to probe the circumstances of Mr. Paul’s death and to consider the responsiveness of various agencies to them. This Commission will also review the social and health services available to the disadvantaged and consider making recommendations for improvement to the social safety net that is supposed to catch people like Mr. Paul. For the UNNS and others, this is an historic opportunity.

The UNNS is committed to assisting this Commission with its important tasks. It has at least two good reasons for doing so. First, given that a human being died in suspicious circumstances, Frank Paul, his family and the public deserve nothing less than a thorough investigation by an impartial body, which they haven’t yet had. There was no coroner’s inquest, although one is mandatory whenever a person dies while detained by or in the custody of a peace officer. There was no public hearing conducted by the Office of the Police Complaint Commissioner and there was no civil or criminal trial. This is the only chance to get the facts. Second, for the UNNS and the people it represents, the name ‘Frank Paul’ has come to symbolize everything that is wrong with the institutions and systems that have been imposed by others on the indigenous population of this province.

Has there been systemic and institutional racism in the past? Of course there has. Does it continue today? Of course it does. One would have to be blind not to see it. The justice system is particularly prone to systemic racism.

To be of aboriginal heritage in British Columbia, whether on or off-reserve, is to be acutely aware of a fundamentally unjust reality; an aboriginal person who looks sideways at a police officer could be jailed, beaten or worse, while police officers can abuse or even cause the death of aboriginals with absolute impunity.

As Grand Chief Stewart Philip alluded to in his remarks, the roll call of aboriginal persons who have died in B.C. in suspicious circumstances involving the police in the last few decades is long. The list includes Fred Quilt, Clarence George Jack, Rocky Allan Pearson, Joanne Leah Totus, Harold Joseph Prince, Sylvester Thomas Plasway, Darrel Steve Wilson, Christopher Stephen Bell, Kevin Jason Skin, Randy Monk, Robert Satiacum, Victor Michael Vincent George, Darrell Horace Yeltatzie, Frank George Bell, Russell John Abraham, Martin Russell Mather, Larry Horace Jack, Benjamin Neil Dixon, James Edward Gray, Adeline Wilson, Stanley George Paul, Eddie Munro Basil, Donald Joseph Rossetti, Eliza Wokely, Paul Alphonse, Anthany James Dawson, Richard William Allen, Mark Ned Francis, Peter Benoit Prince, George David Patterson, Darrell Paquette, Lorraine Moon, Merle Albert Nicholas, Clayton Alvin Willey, Adrienne Claudette Bos, Gerald Chenery and Kyle Tait.

No police officer has ever been charged, let alone convicted, in any of these cases. It’s not hard too see why. In British Columbia, we still allow the police to investigate themselves when someone dies at their hands. They work hand in hand with Crown Counsel and the Coroners Service on these cases. It’s no wonder that the decisions taken by these agencies appear to many to be flawed. To aboriginal people in B.C., the police have always seemed to be above the law, untouchable. For the UNNS, indeed, for all right-thinking people, that perception must change.

Frank Paul met an untimely end in egregious circumstances. One can only imagine what it must have been like for him on that late December night nearly nine years ago, to lie there alone in that alley, desperately sick, wet, freezing cold, unable to move and completely helpless, as a police vehicle – a police vehicle, operated by someone supposedly there to serve and protect all of us from harm – starts up and drives away, its tail lights receding into the winter darkness.

Mr. Commissioner, your counsel has been heard to say that he intends to “shine a light” on the circumstances of Frank Paul’s death and the various investigations into it. As counsel for UNNS, we plan to be there every step of the way to assist you and your counsel by ensuring that the light does not falter, that its beam remains intense and that it its piercing glare is directed into even the darkest of nooks and crannies. In short, we want to ensure that nothing and no one involved in this tragic case escapes your careful scrutiny and ultimately, if warranted, society’s accountability.

Finally. Almost nine years after Frank Joseph Paul, 47, was found dead of hypothermia in a Vancouver alley, the public commission of inquiry into the circumstances of his death is set to begin on Tuesday, November 13, 2007 in Vancouver. Commissioner William Davies, Q.C. a retired Supreme Court of British Columbia justice, will preside over a process intended to scrutinize all aspects of the tragic case, including the handling of investigations conducted by the Vancouver Police Department, Crown Counsel, the BC Coroners Service and the Office of the Police Complaint Commissioner.

Here’s the official blurb, from www.frankpaulinquiry.ca:

“The Government of British Columbia has appointed an independent commission of inquiry to examine the circumstances surrounding the death of Frank Joseph Paul. Mr. Paul, a Mi’kmaq from New Brunswick, was removed from the Vancouver Police Department lockup at about 8:30 p.m. on December 5, 1998, and was left in a nearby alley by a police officer. His body was found in the alley early the next morning. An autopsy concluded he had died from hypothermia due to exposure/alcohol intoxication.”

No coroner’s inquest was held and no criminal charges were laid.

The inquiry is to be divided into phases, with the first phase devoted to the factual circumstances of Mr. Paul’s death. Many organizations and individuals will be represented by counsel at the proceeding, including our client United Native Nations. The lawyers are expected to present opening statements on Tuesday.

Members of the public are welcome. The Commission hearings will be held commencing at 9:30 a.m. each weekday morning at the 8th floor, 701 West Georgia Street, Vancouver, BC. We hope to provide regular updates here.