On September 24, 2007, Cameron Ward will be participating in a forum on deaths in police custody presented by the British Columbia Civil Liberties Association. Entitled “Current Experiences, Future Reform”, the event features relatives of Ian Bush, Kevin St. Arnaud and Gerald Chenery, three men killed recently by BC police officers, as well as various legal experts.

For further information on this forum, which starts at 8:30 a.m. at the UBC Robson Square Theatre, please go to:

http://www.bccla.org/custody.htm

Thomas Campbell, 50, of Baltimore has become at least the 275th North American to die after being shocked by law enforcement officers’ Tasers. The following appeared in the Baltimore Sun on August 22, 2007:

“Baltimore police have released the identity of a suspect who died after he was incapacitated with a Taser during an incident in West Baltimore’s Sandtown-Winchester neighborhood early Saturday morning.

Police said Thomas Campbell, 50, of the 1000 block of McAleer Court was pronounced dead at Bon Secours Hospital shortly after he was subdued with a Taser, a device that delivers a 50,000-volt shock.

Officers apprehended Campbell after receiving a report that a man was running amok in the 1000 block of N. Payson St.

Police say they have used Tasers 14 times this year, and Campbell is the third fatality.”

Readers of this blog may recall that earlier this year I won my civil case against the Province of British Columbia and City of Vancouver arising from my arrest back in August of 2002 on a ridiculous unfounded suspicion that I might throw a cream pie at Prime Minister Chretien. Following a six day trial, Justice Tysoe of the Supreme Court of British Columbia declared that my constitutional rights had been infringed when I was strip-searched, imprisoned in a one metre by two metre cell for a day and had my car taken off the street and impounded so that police might search it for the nonexistent pastry. I was awarded modest damages of $10,100 plus court costs, which have been settled at $32,000.

The province and city could have avoided all these costs, plus the costs incurred by their four lawyers at trial, by simply delivering me a written apology.

I had hoped that the trial judgment would be the end of the matter, but the province’s lawyers filed an appeal. They accept that my rights were violated by the strip search, but plan to argue that the judge was wrong to award me $5,000 damages for that humiliating event. I responded to the appeal by seeking a decision that I was wrongfully arrested by the police and an increase in the damages I was awarded. Not to be outdone, the City’s lawyers have filed a cross appeal seeking repayment of the $100 I was awarded for the wrongful seizure of my car.

Factums and related documents have been filed in the Court of Appeal, and it is expected that the appeal will be argued in the spring of 2008.

So, just how much is all this costing taxpayers? Chief Justice Brenner has estimated that the average cost of a five day civil trial is $100,000 to each litigant involved. On that basis, the province and city may have forked out some $240,000 plus the $42,100 in damages and costs, for some $282,100 for the trial alone. When one adds the cost of the appeals, including purchasing all the transcripts, taxpayers will likely have spent over $300,000 for their governments’ stubborn refusal to say “we’re sorry”. An unpalatable prospect indeed.

I take no pleasure whatsoever in reporting this, which I do simply to illustrate why civil litigation is out of reach of the average citizen. Few people can rely on the courts for vindication, even when their constitutional rights are egregiously violated, because the cost is prohibitive. Governments with deep pockets can and will expend vast sums of money rather than admit any wrongdoing.

Hopefully, somehow, some day, those responsible for making the decision to litigate rather than apologize will get their just desserts.

Postscript: Here’s the most disturbing thing about this odyssey…When the police confronted me on the street that day, I was calm and collected. I raised my voice in protest only after I was handcuffed and after the police refused to tell me why they had handcuffed me. At trial the three police officers said I was handcuffed because I was loud and causing a disturbance. Although this was not the case, the judge accepted their contrived version of events and said that I was “mistaken” in my testimony. I certainly wasn’t mistaken, and this demonstrates that the average citizen won’t win a credibility contest with police officers. The ramifications of this in the criminal justice system are obvious. I take some solace in the fact that I wasn’t convicted of some serious offence and jailed on the basis of police testimony.

Six more people died in July after being shocked by Taser weapons, bringing the total number of North Americans who have died at the hands of police using these electrical stun guns to at least 275. The most recent fatality was Ronald Marquez, 49, of Phoenix, Arizona, who died on July 29th.

Tasers were introduced to Canada in 2000, without public consultation or debate, and fifteen Canadians have died after being Tasered. There are no testing regimes or safety standards for the devices, which incapacitate the subject with a 50,000 volt charge and which are restricted to law enforcement use only.

Betty Krawczyk will turn 79 on Saturday, August 4, 2007. Those concerned that she might mark the occasion by sitting down in front of a piece of heavy equipment can rest assured that there will be no such affront to the rule of law; the diminutive white-haired great-grandmother remains incarcerated at the Alouette Correctional Centre for Women in Maple Ridge, BC, where she is serving the 10 month prison sentence imposed last March. She was found in contempt of court by Justice Brenda Brown for having violated an Order made in a lawsuit commenced by the companies upgrading the Sea to Sky Highway. The Order restrained everyone from a number of activities, including travelling on the highway except in accordance with all applicable laws and regulations. To date no one has been cited for contempt of court for speeding. The companies have taken no steps in furtherance of their lawsuit, which was clearly just a tactic to obtain a court order that would entitle the police to arrest misguided demonstrators like Betty.

Betty’s family and friends look forward to her eventual release from prison and to a delayed celebration of her birthday then.