Who is keeping them accountable?

(Canadian Press) Vancouver, B.C. - Robert Dziekanski’s medical history, not potential skeletons in his past, was the focus of investigators who travelled to Poland to examine the background of the man who died after being jolted by an RCMP Taser, says the senior officer who led the overseas probe.

Dziekanski came to national attention last October when he was hit twice by a Taser after four police officers found him agitated and throwing computer equipment in the arrivals area of Vancouver airport.

Dziekanski’s mother, Zofia Cisowski, has said she’s outraged that a team of officers went to Poland to investigate her son. Continue reading →

(CBC News) Mission, B.C. - A man arrested in the armed robbery of a convenience store on Friday has escaped from custody in Mission, B.C.

RCMP offered few details on David Glen Moody’s escape, except to say that he was outside the detachment when he assaulted his escort, ran down an embankment and made his getaway in a truck from a nearby works yard.

Police wouldn’t say whether he was handcuffed at the time, but an officer pointed out that since he was able to run away “it is kind of apparent he wasn’t shackled.” Continue reading →

(CBC) An elderly man in Kamloops, B.C., was zapped three times on the torso by a police stun gun while lying on his hospital bed, CBC News has learned.

Frank Lasser, 82, appeared fragile Thursday when he showed the Taser marks on his body and talked about the ordeal he went through Saturday.

“They [police] should have known I had bypass surgery,” Lasser told CBC News.

Lasser has had heart surgery and needs to carry an apparatus to supply oxygen at all times. He was in the Royal Inland Hospital Saturday due to pneumonia but has since been released. Continue reading →

Neal Hall (Vancouver Sun) - Police are sometimes too quick to use force rather than trying to de-escalate a situation, a former Mountie told a Taser inquiry Wednesday in Vancouver.

“Certainly, my own opinion is that we’re moving too quickly to use force rather than using techniques to de-escalate,” said Kevin Begg, now assistant deputy minister of the B.C. Ministry of Public Safety and Solicitor-General.

He suggested police should try to lower the level of tension rather than escalate it.

Begg, who served 23 years in the RCMP, said Canadian policing has traditionally been more Continue reading →

A New Brunswick Mountie who waded into the frigid water of the Bay of Chaleur to save a canoeist from drowning Saturday says his height was definitely an asset in the rescue.

“I was taller than the other people at the scene, I’m six-foot-four, so I could wade out and then it was just a short swim to get to him,” Cpl. Dan Melanson said in a telephone interview yesterday.

Melanson is a native of St. Paul, north of Moncton, and an eight-year veteran of the RCMP who is being hailed by his superiors as a hero for quick action in saving canoeist 45-year-old Glen Moore. Continue reading →

(CTV.ca) - The risk of dying from the effects of being jolted by a Taser is very small, according to an expert who testified Monday at a public inquiry into the use of the conducted energy weapon in British Columbia.
J. Patrick Reilly, a researcher and electrical engineer at Johns Hopkins University, testified the Taser has a low probability of causing death or injury.

He carefully explained the device’s effect on the body and how someone could die after being shocked.
Monday was the first phase of the public inquiry, which looked at the rules of use of the weapon by police, the training they receive and any medical aspects.

Retired B.C. Appeal Court justice Thomas Braidwood, who is heading the inquiry, will make Continue reading →

Kevin Rollason (Winnipeg Free Press) - The chief of the Manto Sipi Cree Nation and other northern aboriginal organizations are calling for an independent investigation into a RCMP shooting of an aboriginal man.

Terrence Yellowback, 27, was wounded after a confrontation on the reserve with an RCMP officer on April 5. RCMP had been called to investigate an assault. Continue reading →

Clara Ho, Edmonton, AB (Canwest News Service) - RCMP Commissioner William Elliott volunteered to be Tasered by his staff, the Mounties revealed on Friday.

Alberta Solicitor General Fred Lindsay and his parliamentary assistant Rob Anderson, were also tasered at the force’s Edmonton K Division headquarters. The three were on a tour of the division’s emergency response team on Thursday, which included a demonstration of the Taser, when Elliott was offered the chance to be zapped.

He agreed. Continue reading →

Ottawa (Canadian Press) - The head of the RCMP has been stung lately by criticism about Tasers and now Commissioner William Elliott has been zapped by one of the electronic guns.

Elliott was willingly Tasered during a visit to Alberta, along with the province’s solicitor-general, Fred Lindsay, and an assistant.

Lindsay said it was Elliott’s idea to be shocked with the electronic gun after they watched a demonstration by an RCMP emergency response team on Thursday.

“I think it started with the commissioner, just in conversation, so it just proceeded from there,” Lindsay said Continue reading →

(Press Release) - The Public Service Commission (PSC) of Canada has tabled today in Parliament the Audit of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police - appointments under the Public Service Employment Act (PSEA). The audit concluded that the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) did not effectively manage its public service staffing activities carried out under the PSEA. Approximately 19% or 5,000 of the total RCMP workforce are public service employees under the PSEA. The audit covered the period of April 2005 to December 2007 and examined 204 appointments from across Canada. Continue reading →