A report on taser technology released today parrots the manufacturer’s claims and glosses over 126 deaths proximal to Taser use, says Cameron Ward, lawyer for Robert Bagnell’s family. (Robert Bagnell, 44, died June 23, 2004 after being tasered by Vancouver police.) “Canadian police forces should be obliged to stop using Tasers until truly independent and objective studies have been done on their safety implications”, he said.

There have been 126 deaths proximate to Taser use in North America since September, 1999. [source: Arizona Republic; www.azcentral.com] Ten of those have occurred in Canada. There have been 31 deaths in North America this year alone, with the most recent occurring yesterday, June 13, 2005, in Palatka, Florida. Taser International Inc., the weapon’s manufacturer, claims these deaths are coincidental, and not related to the physiological effects of 50,000 volts of electricity on the human body.

The Victoria Police Department report contains no real analysis of these fatalities, which is predictable. The Victoria Police Department and at least one of its authors have been proponents of Tasers since the Department became the first Canadian police force to start using the devices in 1998. Report contributor Sgt. Darren Laur has personally profited from his relationship with Taser International Inc., having received direct payments and stock options from the company in undisclosed amounts. He was also quoted in 2000 as saying, “My goal would be to see a Taser in every patrol car”. [source: Schizophrenia Digest, Sept./Oct. 2000]. The Victoria Police Department also holds the dubious distinction of having used a Taser on an 82 year-old, one of the oldest persons ever to be shocked by the weapon. [source: Victoria Times Colonist, March 2, 2005] American police forces have used Tasers on children as young as six.

The Office of the Police Complaint Commissioner was right to commission a report into the safety of Tasers. It was wrong, however, to hire some of Canada’s staunchest advocates of the weapons to do the work.

Postscript: Since the foregoing was written on June 14, there have been six more deaths in North America, including one in Surrey, BC and another in Beamsville, ON.

According to statistics compiled by Robert Anglen of the Arizona Republic newspaper, at least 126 North Americans have died since September 1999 after being shocked by Tasers. Ten of those deaths have occurred in Canada, where, as far as we can tell, there has been no independent scientific analysis of the safety of the weapons, which use 50,000 volts of electricity to incapacitate the central nervous system.

Unless action is taken to curb Taser use, deaths will continue to occur at an alarming rate; there have been 31 so far this year, including four in the first two weeks of June. The most recent was Michael Anthony Edwards, 32 of Palatka, Florida, who died June 13, 2005.

The Canadian deaths:

April 19, 2003: Terrance Hanna, 51, Burnaby, B.C.

July 22, 2003: Clay Willey, 33, Prince George, B.C.

Sept. 28, 2003: Clark Whitehouse, 34, Whitehorse, Yukon

March 23, 2004: Perry Ronald, 28, Edmonton, Alta.

May 1, 2004: Roman Andreichik, Vancouver, B.C.

May 13, 2004: Peter Lamonday, 38, London, Ont.

June 23, 2004: Robert Bagnell, 44, Vancouver, B.C.

July 17, 2004: Jerry Knight, 29, Mississauga, Ont.

Aug. 8, 2004: Samuel Truscott, 43, Kingston, Ont.

May 5, 2005: Kevin Geldart, 34, Moncton, N.B.

The British Columbia Court of Appeal has granted Julie Berg, sister of Jeffrey Berg, deceased, leave to appeal the decision of public hearing adjudicator Brian C. Weddell, Q.C. Despite opposition from lawyers representing Police Complaint Commissioner Ryneveld and VPD Constable Bruce-Thomas, Mr. Justice Donald ordered that leave to appeal be granted on the following grounds:

1. that the adjudicator erred in law in admitting into evidence and relying on an agreed statement of facts that in fact had not been agreed to by the parties to the hearing;

2. that the adjudicator erred in law by conducting a hearing that violated the principles of natural justice and denied the complainant procedural fairness; and

3. that the adjudicator erred in law by finding that David Bruce-Thomas did not commit the disciplinary default of abuse of authority by using unnecessary force on the person of Jeffrey Michael Berg causing his death…

It is expected that Ms. Berg’s appeal will be heard by three justices of the Court of Appeal later this year, but a hearing date has not yet been set.

We have responded to BC Police Complaint Commissioner Dirk Ryneveld’s suggested Police Act reforms with a strong critique of the present public complaint system. In our view, there have to be fundamental changes in the way allegations of police misconduct are handled. We recommend considering the adoption of a Special Investigation Unit to investigate serious cases, as Ontario has done.

Right now, according to the people we frequently represent, the system is unfair, secretive and ineffecient. As we point out, the three major problems are that police investigate themselves, the investigative report is kept secret and public hearings, though rare, are patently unfair to the complainants.

Problems are particularily acute in Vancouver. In our experience, Vancouver Police internal investigators do not conduct bona fide investigations of their brethren. Their ‘investigations’ are invariably elaborate cover-ups, completely lacking in credibility.

Any person with the courage and patience to lodge a complaint about police conduct faces an interminable battle on a playing field that is far from level. The police have unlimited resources to hire lawyers to represent their interests, while complainants have to fend for themselves. There must be some form of legal aid to enable members of the public to have legal representation as well.

Read our entire submission to the Police Complaint Commisioner

The parents and sister of a man who died almost a year ago after being jolted by 50,000 volts of electricity by Vancouver police are frustrated by their inability to get any answers to their questions.