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(Globe and Mail) – Canada’s national police force is facing a collapse of public confidence, a loss of trust that deepened with an inquiry’s finding that there was no justification for the death of a Polish immigrant at the hands of four RCMP officers.
Mr. Justice Thomas Braidwood issued his final report June 18 on the death of Robert Dziekański in 2007 at Vancouver International Airport, calling for far-reaching reforms to policing in British Columbia in an effort to restore public faith in the RCMP.
“Mr. Dziekański’s death appears to have galvanized public antipathy for the Force and its members,” he wrote. “That is regrettable, because the most important weapon in the arsenal of the police is public support. This tragic case is, at its heart, the story of shameful conduct by a few officers.”
Braidwood Inquiry website: The Conductive Energy Weapon-Taser®
(CBC) – Lawyers for Taser International will be in B.C. Supreme Court to challenge the conclusions of the first Braidwood Taser inquiry, including the finding that the stun gun’s electric shocks can be fatal.
Commissioner Thomas Braidwood oversaw the two-part inquiry after the death of Robert Dziekański, a Polish immigrant who died after receiving several shocks from an RCMP Taser at Vancouver’s airport in 2007.
In his first report issued in July 2009, Braidwood concluded Tasers could increase the risk of fatal heart failure under certain circumstances, and their use should be restricted.
In a court petition, Taser International responded that Braidwood didn’t take into account the information the company provided and that it wasn’t given a chance to respond at the inquiry.
The Arizona-based company claims it has been forced to travel the world defending its products since the report was released and has lost a multimillion-dollar contract in Africa.
"But I will not let myself be reduced to silence."
