RCMP Watch

Dirk Meissner, Williams Lake, B.C. (Canadian Press) - Jurors at a B.C. coroner’s inquest into an RCMP shooting death say all officers should be trained in the use of tasers.
American Donald Lewis died of a gunshot wound in August of 2006 near McLeese Lake, B.C., in an altercation with an RCMP officer.
Constable Cole Brewer told [...]

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Vancouver, B.C. (Canadian Press) Germain Quesnel sat in an RCMP cell for an hour, believing he was having a heart attack.
He had just received two blasts from a police Taser to his chest because Staff Sgt. Lorne Malkoske said he wouldn’t move away from the cell door. Quesnel, who had had two previous heart attacks, [...]

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Nicki Thomas (Sun Media) - Fort McMurray RCMP officer is on desk duty after finding himself in hot water.
Const. Brian Vaughn, 29, is facing charges that include possession of stolen property, unsafe storage of a firearm and obstruction of justice.
A complaint alleging Vaughn was improperly storing a firearm was made last December, said RCMP spokesman [...]

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Frank Peebles (Prince George Citizen) - The Citizen has learned the investigation into the on-the-job behaviour of Prince George RCMP Supt. Dahl Chambers has been upgraded from a simple fact-finding review to an official disciplinary probe by the RCMP.
It is nearly complete, according to RCMP sources, and does not, in itself, determine guilt or innocence [...]

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Neal Hall, Vancouver, B.C. (Canwest News Service) - The mother of a Polish immigrant who died after being shot with a Taser by Vancouver police told a public inquiry Thursday that her son would still be alive if they didn’t use the controversial weapon on him.
“I know my son would not die if he was [...]

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Gary Mason, Vancouver, B.C. ( Globe and Mail) - Someone else might have resisted the temptation, especially knowing he might be blackballed as a result. But Mike Webster has never operated that way.
And so, when the respected police psychologist testified this week at the B.C. public inquiry into the use of tasers, he didn’t [...]

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Vancouver, B.C. (Canadian Press) - A psychologist who has worked with police forces around the world on crisis management says he’s embarrassed to be associated with police who uses Tasers on “sick old men” and “confused immigrants.”
“Some of these incidents we see in the media of people being Tasered are, frankly, embarrassing,” Mike Webster said [...]

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(CBC News) - The RCMP released an incident report about Robert Dziekanski who died at Vancouver International Airport last October, but much of the information routinely released in other cases was censored.
The name and rank of the officer who fired the Taser weapon, his supervisor’s name, details about the duration of the firing and the [...]

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(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 [...]

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(Canadian OH&S News) — The RCMP has been ordered to adopt mandatory cultural sensitivity training with a view to “developing and promoting a culture of respect and tolerance for diversity.”
The order by the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal (CHRT) follows its determination that a young Muslim man — whose lifelong goal and every effort seemed directed [...]

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