It seems like only yesterday, but it was twenty-five years ago. What would John Lennon make of the world today? What would he have to say about the “War on Terror”? About Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld and Rice? About Paul McCartney performing at the Super Bowl half-time show?

Sigh.

Nearly 18 months after Robert Bagnell died suddenly in his Vancouver rooming house, Regional Crown Counsel of the Criminal Justice Branch, Ministry of Attorney General have advised his family that “no charges will be approved for prosecution.”

Robert’s parents and sister are now looking forward to a mandatory coroner’s inquest, where they hope to uncover the facts related to Robert’s untimely death. The BC Coroners Service has not set a date yet. So far, the family has learned that Robert was unarmed and lying on the floor in the presence of at least five police officers when two of them shot him repeatedly with Taser weapons, apparently to subdue him so he could receive medical attention.

Robert Bagnell is one of at least 160 North Americans who have died after being shot by the Taser, a high tech police weapon that emits a 50,000 volt electrical charge designed to incapacitate and inflict excruciating pain on, but supposedly not kill, the subject. This year alone, 66 people, including four Canadians, have died after being Tasered.

Critics, including Amnesty International, the American Civil Liberties Union and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, say that insufficient safety testing was done on the weapons before they were deployed by police forces in the United States and Canada. Police forces in Chicago and Montgomery, Alabama have discontinued use of the weapon, citing safety and liability concerns.

Meanwhile, people keep dying. The latest was race car driver Dale Earnhardt’s first cousin, Jeffrey D. Earnhardt, 47, who died last Thursday, December 1, 2005, in Orlando, Florida after being shot twice by a police Taser.

………

Robert Bagnell, 44, died on June 23, 2004. The Vancouver Police Department (VPD) initially told his family that Robert died of a drug overdose, then a month later revealed to the media that they had Tasered him twice just before he died. Another month after that, the VPD acknowledged that he was not a threat to anyone and that he was not involved in the commission of a crime when they sent an ERT (SWAT) team into the washroom Robert was in. The police said Bagnell was shocked with 50,000 volts so they could “rescue” him from a “fire” in his building. The family is skeptical of these claims, but it has been unable to obtain autopsy reports or get a coroner’s inquest scheduled, even though one is mandatory.

I returned to Vancouver from a brief (and well-deserved) holiday out of the country to learn that provincial Liberal and NDP MLAs had colluded on a snap vote to award themselves substantial salary and pension increases, only to reverse themselves a few days later after sustained public outrage.

The reasons for the public reaction have been well-documented, and I need not repeat them here. However, this sorry episode is yet another example of how politics has become a dishonourable profession. As I learned some twenty years ago when I was active in a major political party, the field of politics is dominated by persons motivated by naked self-interest and personal ambition. This ugly behaviour can be found at at every level, with the federal Liberals’ Adscam mess being the most egregious recent example.

Any Canadian seeking to make a public contribution, to actually attempt to make a difference in the lives of his or her fellow citizens, would be well advised to stay far away from the cesspools of Ottawa and Victoria.

Chief Coroner Terry Smith has finally scheduled a coroner’s inquest into the death of Sherry Charlie, more than three years after the unfortunate little girl died. He said the delay was because investigative processes by other agencies had to be completed first. Nonsense! A coroner’s inquest is a fact-finding, not a fault-finding, investigation. It should take place quickly in any case of unexplained sudden death, while witnesses’ memories are still fresh. The facts uncovered at an inquest can then be used by other investigators in their work, for example, to determine whether criminal charges are warranted.

In 1997, when Larry Campbell was the Province’s Chief Coroner, 34 coroner’s inquests were held, with an average elapsed time between the date of death and the inquest date of 6.4 months. It is hard to get current statistics, since the BC Coroners Service has not published an Annual Report since 2001, but I have learned that only 13 inquests were held last year.

Despite a 62% reduction in the coroner’s inquest workload, it now seems to take years before inquests are scheduled in many cases. For example, the coroner’s inquest into the death of Jeff Berg commenced in June, 2004, nearly four years after his death at the hands of Vancouver police on October 24, 2000.

The delays in the BC Coroners Service processes are unconscionable to the families of the deceased and the public, and Smith and Solicitor General John Les should be pressed for a better explanation for them than those offered so far.

Let me get this straight. While Quebec federal Liberals and their cronies were operating a corrupt kickback scheme and funnelling tens of millions of dollars from the public purse, Finance Minister Paul Martin, a lifelong Quebec Liberal, the highest ranking party member in the province, remained blissfully unaware of what was going on? You mean to tell me that while he was on the rubber chicken circuit, gladhanding Qubec Liberal party members, planning strategy and tactics, running the nation’s finances, this criminal activity somehow escaped his attention?

I didn’t just fall off the turnip truck. Let me offer an explanation for Judge Gomery’s conclusions on this aspect of the matter. I am speaking as one who participated as counsel in a lengthy public inquiry (APEC) and one who watched Martin’s testimony before the commission.

A commissioner of inquiry, like Judge Gomery, takes his lead from commission counsel. In this instance, counsel did not press Martin on his assertions that he knew nothing. The questions put to Martin were like lobbed softballs, not major league sliders. Any resemblance to probing cross-examination was purely coincidental.

This was to be expected. After all, would a lawyer appointed by the Martin’s federal government actually grill the sitting prime minister, let alone challenge his credibility? Not very likely.

Don’t blame Judge Gomery for his findings about Martin. The blame should fall on the inquiry system, a system that operates in such a deferential fashion in situations like this.