Canada Line (RAV) construction is well under way in Vancouver, as evidenced by massive open trenches, noise, dust and traffic congestion. Businesses along Cambie Street are bearing the brunt of the disruption with no relief in sight from the governments that have committed billions of tax dollars to the project.

However, the July 2007 quarterly report says this (page 26): “In the second quarter of 2007, CLCO reached a tentative agreement with the Musqueam regarding a possible assistance package associated with the Musqueam fishery in the vicinity of the Canada Line bridges.”

Huh? Compensation to the Musqueam for disruption of fishing in the Fraser River, but no compensation for the suffering family-owned businesses along the Cambie Street trench?

The British Columbia government, a major proponent of this mega-project, portrays itself as business-friendly. The businesses along Cambie Street, at least those that are still there, have a hard time swallowing that proposition and one of them, Hazel & Co., has launched a legal action for damages based on misrepresentations, nuisance, trespass and injurious affection. More businesses may follow suit…

In May of 2002, lawyer Martin Wirick resigned from the Law Society of British Columbia and ceased practising law. It became apparent that he had misappropriated trust funds on a massive scale in real estate transactions involving his client Tarsem Gill and the “Vanview group of companies”.

Every BC lawyer has been victimized, for we have been levied some $600 per year for the last five years, or $3,000 each, in order to make restitution to the victims of the Wirick/Gill dealings. Some $42.1 million has been paid by us to those victims, mostly financial institutions, who suffered losses.

As far as I am aware, no charges have been laid against anyone in this case. We have been told this by the Law Society; “The Vancouver Police and the RCMP, through the Lower Mainland White Collar Crime Unit, announced in early 2005 that they are conducting a criminal investigation of Mr. Wirick and Mr. Gill”.

More than two years have passed since that announcement, and more than five years have elapsed since the Law Society first told us about the misappropriations. What is going on here?

Is the “Lower Mainland White Collar Crime Unit”, whatever that is, asleep at the switch?

An unidentified man died after he was Tasered in Maryland on Saturday, the eleventh person this month to die in such circumstances. At least 269 North Americans have reportedly died after being shocked with the Taser’s 50,000 volt electrical charge since police started using the weapons. Although Tasers are touted as “life-saving” devices, they are frequently used on armed people in medical distress, with often tragic results.

There are no Canadian safety standards for Tasers, a “less-lethal” weapon that is designed to fire 50,000 volts of electricty into a person’s body, inflicting excruciating pain and overwhelming the central nervous system, a coroner’s jury heard yesterday.

Allan Nakatsu, a project team leader with global product testing firm ETL Intertek Semko, testified that, unlike toasters, hair dryers, electric toothbrushes, or even cattle prods and electric fences, no electrical standards or testing protocols exist for the weapons, which were quietly introduced into Canada in 2000.

Mr. Nakatsu also testified that one of the two Tasers Intertek tested generated energy output of 30.42 joules/pulse, eighty-five times greater than the manufacturer’s specification of .36 joules/pulse. Earlier, the jury heard that police investigators took the two Tasers used on Robert Bagnell to the lab to be tested.

The manufacturer, Arizona company Taser International Inc., maintains that the Taser is safe. Company spokesman Steve Tuttle has reportedly said that the energy output of .36 joules/pulse is too low to cause cardiac damage.

Amnesty International has just released a much-anticipated report on Canadian Taser use, recommending that the use of the weapons be discontinued.

Robert Bagnell, 44, died on June 23, 2004 after at least 13 Vancouver police officers responded to a 911 call for an ambulance. Bagnell was in a state of mental distress in his bathroom. Police ERT (SWAT) members Tasered him twice while extricating him from the bathroom, according to testimony at the inquest.

Update: The five person jury presiding at the coroner’s inquest classified the death as an accident and was “unable to agree on any recommendations”, the coroner’s court heard yesterday.

Meanwhile, an unidentified San Jose man died yesterday after being Tasered by police, bring the reported Taser-related death toll to 268. Ten people have died so far in May, 2007 after being Tasered by police. 209 people died after being Tasered in the period between Robert Bagnell’s death on June 23, 2004 and the conclusion of the inquest into his death on May 25, 2007.