RCMP Watch

Joe Strizi, Sherbrooke, Quebec ( Sherbrooke Record) - Controversy on Taser usage continues to surface as another man died Monday after being stunned by Ontario Provincial Police officers. However, in the Eastern Townships local regulations meet most of the criteria recommended in a report released by the RCMP last week on Tasers.
“Patrol officers don’t carry [...]

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Christina Spencer, Ottawa (Toronto Sun) - RCMP misinformation is a key reason a Canadian businessman has been languishing in prison in Bulgaria for the last 12 years, says the outspoken former head of the RCMP complaints commission.
Shirley Heafey told Sun Media the case of Michael Kapoustin, jailed in Sofia since 1996, bears a close resemblance [...]

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(The Leader-Post) - Having recently spent an inordinate and increasing amount of time assisting with complaints of racism from RCMP officers, cadets, and RCMP civilian staff, we are left with extra questions when tragedies such as the recent RCMP shootings at White Bear and Muskowekwan First Nations occur.
What makes us even more uneasy is that, [...]

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Tiffany Crawford (Canwest News Service) - An Ontario man is dead after Ontario Provincial Police used a Taser after they said the man became combative and disturbed others.
The OPP said the incident happened Monday morning after police responded to a call of a disturbance in Norfolk County, about 130 kilometres southwest of Toronto.
The Taser incident [...]

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Angela Hall (Regina Leader-Post) - RCMP cadets who come to Regina to train for six months will now get a $500 weekly allowance as the national police force aims to be competitive in today’s tight labour market, Prime Minister Stephen Harper announced Friday.
Harper said the federal government made the decision as the RCMP faces a [...]

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Tracy Holmes (Peace Arch News) - The man at the centre of a “violent struggle” on Crescent Road this week has died.
David James Stitt was taken off life support Thursday, the day after an altercation with police outside his 13578 Crescent Rd. home.
Along with confirmation of Stitt’s death, the RCMP’s Integrated Homicide Investigation Team has [...]

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(CBC News) - A parliamentary committee is threatening to call for a moratorium on the use of stun guns if the RCMP doesn’t begin restricting use of the weapons by the end of the year.
The House of Commons public safety and national security committee made its report on Taser use public in the hours following [...]

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((CBC News) - RCMP members with less than five years of operational experience should be prohibited from using Taser stun guns, the force’s watchdog said Wednesday, adding that any individuals zapped by the Mounties should receive immediate medical attention.
Paul Kennedy, head of the Commission for Public Complaints Against the RCMP, released a final report Wednesday [...]

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Jim Bronskill And Sue Bailey, Ottawa (Canadian Press) - Nearly one - third of the people the RCMP has zapped with Tasers needed medical treatment afterward, prompting new questions about a potent weapon police consider a safer alternative to conventional guns.
A joint investigation by The Canadian Press and CBC-Radio-Canada of more than 3,200 incidents in [...]

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Lisa Arrowsmith, Edmonton, A.B. (Canadian Press) - The head of Saskatchewan’s largest aboriginal organization is demanding a meeting with Canada’s public safety minister, to talk about what he calls “Rambo-style” policing after RCMP on Saturday shot and killed a man on a reserve southeast of Regina.
The man, identified by a close relative as Chase McKay [...]

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