In light of recent Taser deaths, most notably that of Polish immigrant, Robert Dziekanski in Vancouver, Taser International, whose company motto is “Protect Life,” is protecting its own life with aggressive legal defense.

Anyone who launches a lawsuit against Taser International Inc. or suggests a Taser electronic device was involved in a death are liable to get another shock when the company brings down the full force of its legal team.

Taser International is currently named as a defendant in at least 39 wrongful death or personal injury lawsuits where a Taser was used.

The company is aggressive in defending itself in such lawsuits and has entered into agreements to prevent its own insurance provider from settling out of court,

It has even filed a lawsuit demanding an Ohio coroner change her conclusion that a Taser was a contributing factor in the deaths of two men.

Taser also sent out legal demand letters to 60 organizations after its latest public relations black eye where a Polish man was jolted with a Taser by RCMP at the Vancouver International Airport and died minutes later.

“We are taken aback by the number of media outlets that have irresponsibly published conclusive headlines blaming the Taser device…as the cause of death before completion of the investigation,” Taser Chairman Tom Smith said in a news release.

The amateur video showed RCMP officers zapping Robert Dziekanski with a Taser while he screamed and writhed on the floor at the arrivals area in the international terminal.

The footage was seen around the world on TV and Internet and provoked an outcry against the use of the stun guns by police.

“Historically, medical science and forensic analysis has shown that these deaths are attributable to other factors and not the low-energy electrical discharge of the Taser,” Smith said in a news release.

The firm’s 2006 annual report said Taser assembled a team of world-class medical experts and additional legal resources to provide an efficient means of defending the company against numerous product liability claims.

The article continues.

In some Taser deaths, and notably Robert Dziekanski’s, an obvious question comes to mind when viewing the tragic unfolding of events on the video: did the police resort to using the 50,000 volt Taser too quickly? Thankfully, the outraged viewer is not the only one asking that question.

The man who will head a review of the RCMP’s use of tasers following the death of a Polish visitor in the Vancouver airport says he is concerned they may be deployed too quickly and too often.

Paul Kennedy, chairman of the Commission for Public Complaints Against the RCMP, said yesterday that there have been instances “where I thought it was being used inappropriately at too early a level of intervention.”

Through the review ordered this week by Public Safety Minister Stockwell Day, Mr. Kennedy said he wants to get a sense of whether RCMP “policy and their model in terms of recourse to force is appropriate.”

And he wants to find out whether officers “have thought about other devices. Have they been told that this is either a last resort or should be used at the higher end in terms of intervention?”

The inappropriate use of tasers is not a new concern for Mr. Kennedy. In his annual report tabled in June, he said one taser-firing incident led him to conclude that a review of the weapons was necessary.

Mr. Kennedy pointed to the case of an intoxicated woman – he didn’t name her – who was tasered by an RCMP officer and taken to the police station.

“That was okay in the first instance,” he said. But then “she is in the station and the device is used against her again. It’s a woman handcuffed in a station when there were other officers there. I said that is inappropriate in my belief. The commissioner agreed with me.”

Had Robert Dziekanski’s Taser death not been recorded in unsparing horror for the world to see, his death might have been another statistic to gloss over. But in this painful aftermath:

The B.C. government has announced a full public inquiry into the death of Robert Dziekanski, a Polish immigrant who died after RCMP officers shocked him with a Taser at Vancouver International Airport.

“We’ve decided it’s in the public interest that a public inquiry should be held into the matter at YVR,” Solicitor General John Les said at the B.C. legislature.

“What we’re saying today is we intend to address this in a way that is fully public.”

Les said the inquiry will also examine how Tasers are used by police departments across the province.

Meanwhile, Les and B.C. Premier Gordon Campbell offered a public apology to Dziekanski’s mother.

“I’m glad to apologize for what took place,” said Campbell. “That was something that was devastating to her in more ways than I can even begin to imagine.

“I’m sure the RCMP would be glad to apologize. So I’m glad to apologize on behalf of people in British Columbia for what took place.”

Les said the province would appoint a commissioner to look into the circumstances surrounding Dziekanski’s death, as well as the policy governing the use of stun guns by police in the province.

Further humanizing this tragedy, is a poignant interview with Dziekanski’s widow, Elzbieta Dubon.

Ms. Dubon described Mr. Dziekanski, 40, as a “great man” and an animal lover who adored his mother, was respected by friends and had a “fanatic” passion for geography.

She said the police asked Mr. Dziekanski’s mother why his suitcase was packed with geography books and atlases. “It was because those textbooks were his life,” Ms. Dubon said.

She said she might have joined Mr. Dziekanski in Kamloops, even though others have said he went to live with his mother to escape a toxic existence on the ground floor of this derelict, century-old apartment building.

It is a grim place in which to live. A vodka bottle lies on the floor beside a coffee table featuring a half-eaten breast of chicken, an overflowing ashtray and large photographs of Mr. Dziekanski’s final hysterical moments before dying in the grip of Taser-wielding Mounties in Vancouver.

“He looks like a terrorist in these pictures, but he was scared,” she explained.

“Robert was at a breaking point. He could show his desperation in no other way. He wanted someone to help him.”

Dziekanski’s memorial service, held on Saturday, was attended by numerous strangers who sought to offer sympathy and support to Dziekanski’s mother, Zofia Cisowski, and to protest of the Taser use, as reported by CBC News.

Ron and Tina Meier appeared on the Today Show, to discuss their 13-year-old daughter, Megan, who committed suicide in the aftermath of a failed MySpace romance, which was later revealed to be a hoax. They say they have not received an apology from the family whom they hold responsible for perpetuating the hoax that lead to their daughter’s death. As they point out:

The family’s story is, Tina Meier told Lauer, a cautionary tale about the trouble that lies in wait for kids on the Internet, a tale made more painful because they had monitored their daughter’s Internet use closely and had talked to her about “Josh” and the events that ended so tragically.

“It was monitored highly,” Tina Meier said of her daughter’s MySpace account. “We had the password. She couldn’t sign on without us. We had to be in the room” when she was online.

They have not filed a civil suit against the people who invented Josh, but are not ruling that out.

And they also want to warn other parents and children to beware of people online who claim to be their friends.

“Continue to monitor your children,” Tina Meier told Lauer. “Take an extra step. Ask the question. Look at their computers, know what they’re doing. To kids, don’t trust anybody online that you do not know is your true friend.”

The article continues. Here is the video of the interview.

In the aftermath of the release of the graphic, horrifying video of Robert Dziekanski’s death by RCMP Taser at Vancouver Airport, the worldwide uproar and outrage continues. As Reuters notes.

The Royal Canadian Mounted Police were widely condemned on Friday for using stun guns on an unarmed Polish man who collapsed and died in an incident that was shown around the world in a graphic 10-minute video.

The footage of Robert Dziekanski howling in agony after he was hit by 50,000-volt Taser blasts at Vancouver International Airport is another blow to Canada’s famed Mounties, who have been shaken by a number of recent scandals.

The Globe and Mail, Canada’s most influential newspaper, ran a savage editorial on what it called “the summary execution of an innocent man” whose only crime was being confused.

“The Taser death video that was being broadcast around the world yesterday is a source of shame and disgrace for Canada and for its national police force,” the newspaper said.

Dziekanski, who flew to Canada to live with his mother in the Pacific province of British Columbia, mistakenly waited for her in the baggage area rather than passing through the customs section to enter the main part of Vancouver’s airport.

After several hours he became frustrated and threw a small table at a window. He was standing still when police arrived and fired at him almost immediately.

The Toronto Star said the quick use of a weapon designed only to be fired as last resort raised very troubling questions. The right-of-center National Post, usually a strong backer of law enforcement bodies, also condemned the Mounties.

“The appearance of poor practice here is so strong that the RCMP may face a tough decision whether to defend their members’ actions or to deny that they are, in fact, routine operating procedure,” it said.

Canadian news Web sites were flooded with hundreds of comments, most of them condemning the police.

The Globe and Mail had this to say:

The taser death video that was being broadcast around the world yesterday is a source of shame and disgrace for Canada and for its national police force.

The RCMP can seek to justify police actions all they like. They can argue that the four officers who tasered a Polish man at Vancouver International Airport on Oct. 14 were just following procedures.

They can argue that we don’t know for sure his cause of death, and that tasers are safe. They can argue that the video is only one piece of evidence and that people should wait for the results of an inquest before forming their judgments. They can say all of that, but the killing of Robert Dziekanski will be seen only one way: as the summary execution of an innocent man for the crime of being disoriented, for not understanding, for being a stranger.

The video, which was shot by Victoria resident Paul Pritchard, is almost impossible to watch for its tragic inevitability. It’s like watching a snuff film. But apart from police, there is some humanity in it. A woman in the video responds in a way the situation called for. She seems to understand that this is a person in distress. She approaches Mr. Dziekanski gently, opening a hand to him. She attempts to communicate with him. A man’s voice is also heard on the video trying to calm Mr. Dziekanski, saying, “There’s nothing wrong … It’s okay.” These two citizens were responding as human beings, offering help to someone in need.

The editorial continues, in its stark and much-needed condemnation. The Toronto Star has this to say:

Police officers are supposed to use Tasers as a weapon of last resort, after less drastic measures have failed to control an aggressive suspect and the only alternative is drawing their guns.

Yet it took RCMP officers only 30 seconds to employ one of the high-voltage stun guns against an agitated traveller at Vancouver International Airport last month, even though a bystander’s video released this week shows he did not appear to pose an immediate danger to anyone. Just minutes later, after police administered a second Taser jolt and restrained him, Robert Dziekanski was dead.

The haste with which officers resorted to using a Taser against a man who apparently was not actively confronting or threatening them raises extremely troubling questions. Even before the conclusion of several investigations that have already been launched into this incident, police forces across Canada should remind officers that Tasers should not be wielded casually. The weapons have the potential to save lives by giving police a viable alternative to using their guns. But where discussion, physical restraint, batons or other less extreme measures may defuse a situation without compromising the safety of officers or the public, they should always be tried first.

Paul Pritchard, who shot the video, appeared this morning on CBS. Visit the Web site to watch. Here is an excerpt of the transcript.

Pritchard told Storm it was the Mounties themselves who first made him realize the video, which they’d confiscated, might be worth retrieving, and publicizing.

He says he was motivated by “the fact that the police actually took it from me and didn’t give it back, and, you know, broke a verbal agreement, promising to give it back, and they took it away. (That) led me to believe that maybe there’s something important on that footage that I needed to get out to the public.”

Pritchard says that, when the incident began, Dziekanski “was acting a little bit strange. He was banging on glass. He was actually trying to get back into the secured area.

“I woke up, and started watching. And as soon as he got back through the glass doors, that’s when I started rolling with the film.

The Mounties took half-an-hour just to show up, Pritchard said, and “When police arrived, he stopped everything. He put up his hands. He gave up. When the police came, he thought it was over. The Mounties did not see him at this point break anything.”

Why did they taser him?

“I have no idea,” Pritchard responded. “It was the first step they took.”

They tasered Dziekanski at least twice, Pritchard said, adding that after the first time, “There’s audio of the man saying, ‘Hit him again, hit him again’ when he’s on the ground.

“He was on the ground. There were three officers on him, then the officer says, ‘Hit him again, hit him again.’

On Fox News, Neil Cavuto interviewed Tom Smith, the chairman and co-founder of Taser International who defended the weapon and its use. Visit the Web site for the full transcript. Similarly, Toronto’s police chief supports the continued use of Tasers. In contrast, Newfoundland has suspended Taser use. As far away as New Zealand, Taser use is being reevaluated.

This Vancouver television report on the worldwide reaction, includes interviews with Robert Dziekanski’s relatives in Poland.

We can only hope that a full investigation will proceed in Canada and that, worldwide, the use of Tasers will be reconsidered and reevaluated, lest there be more tragic deaths like that of Robert Dziekanski.

The full video has been released and, at last, the tragic taser death of Robert Dziekanski, which Privacy Maven has written about previously, is receiving international attention and outrage.

Police shocked a Polish immigrant with a Taser about 30 seconds after approaching him at Vancouver International Airport last month, a video released Wednesday shows.

Moments later, three or four officers pinned Robert Dziekanski, 40, to the ground as he screamed and moaned in pain.

“The audio’s sickening,” said Paul Pritchard, 25, a Victoria teacher who was in the airport after a flight from China, and recorded Dziekanski’s death. “His scream is brutal.

“You hear a man die, obviously.”

One officer placed his knees against Dziekanski’s back and neck until he went limp. He later died.

Pritchard arranged to have the footage released to the public in Vancouver on Wednesday.

Vancouver lawyer Walter Kosteckyj, who is acting for the dead man’s mother, said he was appalled by the treatment of Dziekanski, who appeared disoriented but had become agitated after about 10 hours at the airport. He said Zofia Cisowski had seen portions of the video, but not all of it.

“She had a son in distress, he was looking for help, he was frightened, and he didn’t get that help,” Kosteckyj said after releasing the video to the media.

“I was surprised when I saw it. That’s not the right word. I was absolutely shocked. I expected to see some discussion, some attempt to control the situation and then things going sideways.

“What you will see is how quickly things came about. People should judge for themselves.”

Kosteckyj was angry that security guards at the airport were uninterested, and that police made no attempt to defuse the situation before using the Taser.

An American policing expert who saw the video said that the police should have been able to restrain the Polish visitor using their hands.

“I don’t even think batons or mace would have been necessary given that there were four officers on the scene,” said Michael Lyman, a criminal justice professor at Columbia College in Missouri.

The article continues. Here is the full video, which has just been released. As has been noted in these news reports, it is quite disturbing.

From The Globe and Mail:

Mr. Kosteckyj said it’s too soon to comment on legal action, although he has been talking to witnesses to prepare for a planned coroner’s inquest. He said people have called him from as far away as Texas to offer their comments on what they saw.

“I was expecting to see a confrontation, a discussion and things go sideways, then the tasering. That’s not what you see,” he said.

“The biggest thing that surprises me is there were four professional police officers there, and that the four officers showed up on the scene, [and] none of them seemed to take the time, not one of them, to go and talk to the crowd of people, the witnesses that were there and get some background on what was going on,” he said.

He urged people to watch the video and draw their own conclusions.

A spokesman for the integrated homicide investigation team, which is investigating the incident, urged the public to await the coroner’s inquest and consider the video in the context of evidence that will include officers explaining their conduct.

But Corporal Dale Carr, a spokesman for the police team investigating the incident, conceded that may be a futile request. “People are going to form their opinions. They are going to make their conclusions and I, unfortunately, don’t expect I can control that.”

Asked about the absence of attempts to defuse the situation with conversation, Cpl. Carr said, “That’s part of what we are trying to get to the bottom of, what was going through these officers’ minds, what did they choose, and why they chose the intervention they did.”

Mathew Ingram comments on Paul Pritchard’s efforts to bring this story to worldwide attention it has needed.

The term “citizen journalism” sounds like an elaborate concept, involving groups of citizens who sign up for some sort of advanced program and then go forth and report on news events — with a “Digital Press” card in their fedora perhaps. In reality, however, it’s average people with cellphone cameras and digital videocams, taking footage of events that occur around them. A great example is the video clip of Robert Dziekanski being Tasered by the RCMP at the Vancouver airport, which you can see for yourself on globeandmail.com, or at dozens of other websites and on television.

Paul Pritchard happened to be in the airport waiting for a flight, and was watching as Mr. Dziekanski became more and more agitated at being separated from his mother, who apparently was unaware that he had arrived and was still being kept behind the security doors (it was his first plane flight and he didn’t speak English). His video is disturbing not so much for the images of Mr. Dziekanski writhing in pain — although those parts of the video are difficult to watch — but for the almost complete lack of attempts to calm the victim before he is Tasered not once but twice.

The police and the Taser ‘win.’ A report has been released:

Two University of Florida police officers who Tasered a student at a recent political forum were justified in their actions, according to a report released Wednesday by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement.

Andrew Meyer, a 21-year-old UF student, was pinned to the ground by six UF Police officers and Tasered when he refused to be physically removed from a Sept. 17 town hall forum with U.S. Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass. The officers tried to remove him after he used vulgar language while questioning Kerry.

According to the report, the officers had not intended to arrest Meyer initially, but did so when he resisted and subsequently Tasered him when he refused to be handcuffed.

The report says the officers acted “well within” state guidelines that allow for Tasering when a person is resisting.

Sgt. Eddie King, who ordered the Tasering, and Officer Nicole Mallo, who Tasered Meyer, have been on paid administrative leave since shortly after the incident. The two have now been reinstated, according to a statement released Wednesday by UPD Chief Linda Stump.

“As more information has come to be known as to the circumstances surrounding the event, we continue to support our officers who made difficult decisions during the quickly evolving disruption of the event,” Stump said in a news release.

Photos and a complete video of the incident.

The Gainesville Sun article goes on to discuss background information suggesting that Andrew Meyer was intentional in his actions to draw attention to himself.

Apart from detailing the events that led to Meyer’s Tasering, the Florida Department of Law Enforcement suggests Meyer had planned to act out during the campus political event. Meyer told a friend a week before the event that he would put on a show when Kerry came to UF, according to a witness who says he overheard the conversation.

The conversation took place on Sept. 11, according to the report, on a day when Meyer approached a student group on campus that was supporting former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani’s presidential campaign.

“Giuliani supporters had an interaction with (Meyer) in the Plaza of the Americas which resulted in (Meyer) allegedly kicking their candidate’s signs. (Meyer’s) behavior was characterized by witnesses as boisterous and provocative,” the report says.

Meyer then proceeded to have a “heated exchange” with a female student who disagreed with Meyer’s actions or views, the report says.

According to the report, Meyer then told an unnamed friend that, “If he liked what he had seen, referencing the verbal exchange/confrontation he had with the female student, that he should go to the Kerry speech and he would really see a show.”

As Privacy Maven has noted earlier, Andrew Meyer’s alleged pranksterism and publicity seeking inclinations have been widely discussed and debated and Privacy Maven continues to assert that pranksters also have the right to free speech since the U.S. Constitution does not exempt them from such rights.

As the three deaths by Taser in the past month in Canada demonstrate, the Taser can be a lethal weapon. Thankfully Andrew Meyer survived the 50,000 volts of electricity; otherwise, the world indeed would “really see a show.” Tragically, it is a show that has been seen repeatedly. Privacy Maven again makes note of John Pozadzides’ excellent analysis of the excessive use of Tasers by law enforcement officials worldwide.

If we cannot muster any empathy for a “prankster” being Tasered, how do we feel about William Lamb, the 78 year old unarmed man being Tasered at L.A. Airport in 2004? Does it take an expert to determine that maybe this was excessive force and that the 78 year old man, no matter how irate or profane he may have become, did not pose a physical threat or danger to the police?

If the liberal use of Tasers continues in the U.S., Canada and worldwide, it is inevitable that the death toll will rise.

News of the upcoming inquest has just been released:

A coroner’s inquest will be held into the death of a Polish immigrant after being Tasered by RCMP at Vancouver International Airport.

Jeff Dolan, B.C.’s assistant deputy chief coroner, says inquests are automatic when in-custody deaths are involved but no date has yet been set for the inquest.

Dolan said officials of the B.C. Coroner’s Service met Tuesday with Zofia Cisowski of Kamloops, B.C., the grieving mother of Robert Dziekanski who worked two jobs for seven years to save up money for son to join her in Canada.

“The purpose of the meeting was to ensure that the family is aware of what the role of the coroner is, the fact that it’s an independent, fact-finding investigation,” he said. “And what they can expect as the investigation progresses (and) they ultimately go to inquest.”

The 40-year-old man died Oct. 14 after being zapped by a Taser wielded by police officers trying to subdue him.

A preliminary autopsy report showed there were no signs of trauma, disease or any other obvious cause of death, and officials are waiting for results of toxicology and other tests.

Cisowski said Monday that RCMP have not told her any details about her son’s death. A spokesman said they have tried to contact her but have only been in touch with her lawyer.

In this past month there have been three Taser deaths in Canada, although the case of Polish immigrant, Robert Dziekansk, at the Vancouver Airport, has received the most attention. The other two deaths occurred in Quebec:

A Quebec government task force rejected calls for a moratorium on the taser gun despite two recent deaths in the province and one in B.C. following use of the weapon.

The task force has been at work since last spring, but three recent incidents have injected a sense of urgency to complete its report.

On Oct. 17, days after his arrest in which a taser was used, Montreal resident Quilem Registre died after going into cardiac arrest five times, his sister said.

A Quebec City man, Claudio Castagnetta, died Sept. 20 from self-inflicted wounds to his head after being zapped at least four times, according to witnesses.

On Oct. 14, Polish immigrant Robert Dziekanski died minutes after being jolted by a taser at the Vancouver airport.

Victims’ lawyers and family members, as well as community activists and Amnesty International, have called for a moratorium on use of the weapon.

Also known as a stun gun, the taser discharges a 50,000-volt electric shock that temporarily paralyzes the muscles. Police and government authorities in Quebec contend it is an effective weapon and dismissed allegations that it has caused 17 deaths in the country in less than five years.

“In no instances has it been shown that the death of someone was related to the use of the taser gun,” said Robert Lafrenière, assistant deputy minister for the Ministry of Public Security.

As Ian Mulgrew, of Vancouver Sun points out, this denial from officials that Taser use has resulted in death is not uncommon:

Two deaths in Canada from Taser incidents last week should have everyone concerned.

But Dr. Christine Hall, a Victoria emergency room physician who considers herself a specialist in such deaths, thinks we’re wrong to blame the U.S.-made shock devices.

She says we should be focusing less on the instrument and more on the individuals who have died.

She thinks I’m “hysterical” and my call for an inquiry into the use of Tasers “a diatribe.”

In her opinion, it’s not the 50,000 volts of canned lightning that stops ‘em dead — it’s something else.

Hall points to the similarities displayed by nearly everyone who has succumbed in these situations, which are categorized as “in-custody deaths” — be they at the hands of prison guards, police or emergency personnel. The victims are all usually sweating, hyper-agitated and unresponsive to their environment and other people.

Today, as Hall says, the authorities try to restrain such people with a Taser and some die. It used to be they used physical restraint and some still died, she maintains — in-custody deaths are nothing new.

Hall insists most people who die under such circumstances usually are under the influence of cocaine or methamphetamines, which I think is a huge issue.

Some also are suffering from mental health or other physical conditions that are aggravating elements that contribute to their death.

But, like the Polish immigrant killed at Vancouver International Airport last week, too many in my view suffer from nothing that would explain or point to a cause of death aside from the Taser or the restraint procedure.

And that’s the problem Hall and law-enforcement agencies seems intent on overlooking.

With tragic results, brought home, viscerally, in this CTV report which profiles Zofia Cisowski, mother of the man whom police killed with Tasers at Vancouver Airport, who strives to uncover the truth.

The man whom police at Vancouver International Airport tasered to death on October 14 has been identified, but the circumstances and the exact cause of his death are still unknown:

A man who died at Vancouver International Airport minutes after being zapped with an RCMP stun gun was in the process of immigrating to live with his family in British Columbia.

Instead 40-year-old Robert Dziekanski, of Pieszyce, Poland, died early Sunday morning, minutes after being zapped with two jolts of electricity from a Taser stun gun.

The death has refocused attention on the use of the weapon by police in Canada.

Vancouver lawyer Cameron Ward represented the family of a man who died after being Tasered while in Vancouver police custody and he believes the weapons are overused.

“The police are frequently using them on people who are not armed and who may be in medical or emotional distress.”

Assistant deputy chief coroner Jeff Dolan said an autopsy found no trauma, disease or any other obvious cause of death for Dziekanski. He will have to see if toxicology or microscopic examination can determine why the man died.

RCMP said after Dziekanski’s death that he was in a state of excited delirium when they encountered him, that he was yelling, throwing things, banging on the windows and sweating heavily.

The use of the term excited delirium irritates Ward. “I think it’s premature and misleading to assert that excited delirium, so called, was in any way involved,” he said.

Cell phone image of Robert Dziekanski at Vancouver International Airport

CBC News interviewed eyewitness Sima Ashrafinia who captured the incident on her cell phone camera:

Sima Ashrafinia, who recorded the incident at the airport on her cellphone, told CBC News that RCMP officers stunned Dziekanski four times and handcuffed him after he fell on the floor.

“The third and fourth ones were at the same time,” she alleges. “The officer at his right and the officer at his left, they Tasered him at the same time and he fell down on his right.

“As he fell down, four or five officers gathered around him and handcuffed him while he was on the floor.”

She is also interviewed this CTV report which features some of the footage she shot of the taser incident.

The Globe and Mail reports that the taser death of a man at Vancouver International Airport on Sunday, October 14, has become the impetus for an examination of the use of tasers by police in Canada:

Another taser-related death in Canada has set off a call for national standards on when and how the weapons are used.

Emile Therien, past president of the Canada Safety Council, says no one knows how many times a day officers in Canada use the conducted energy weapons.

Mr. Therien, who took part in a RCMP-National Research Council review of tasers, says police now simply accept the manufacturer’s recommendations but there are no Canadian standards.

He says every time an officer brings out a gun it must be reported, but there’s no such requirement for tasers.

[...]

In the latest death Sunday, RCMP at the Vancouver International Airport tried to subdue a man who police said had been acting erratically, yelling, pounding on windows and throwing computer equipment.

Mr. Therien says as many as 16 people have died in the last four and a half years after they were tasered by police officers.

This news report discusses these safety issues and concerns regarding taser use in Canada.

In a separate article, The Globe and Mail interviewed a woman who witnessed the taser death at Vancouver Airport:

A witness to the death of a man tasered by police at the Vancouver airport after acting erratically says she is full of pity for the stranger because he appeared unable to communicate with anyone during the melee that led to his death.

“I put myself in his shoes,” said Sima Ashrafina, who was at the airport to pick up her husband. “I can’t speak English. I am arrived in the wrong country, or for some reason I am so drunk, I am so medicated, or I am so drugged.

“For any reason, I lose my mind and then I start shouting and that’s what happens. It was a lack of communication.”

[...]

Ms. Ashrafina, who recorded images of the incident on her cellphone camera, also disputes key aspects of the RCMP account, such as the number of officers on the scene and the number of times the unidentified man was tasered.

RCMP spokesman Sergeant Pierre Lemaitre said three officers were on the scene and that the man was pulsed twice. Ms. Ashrafina said she saw five officers and heard four pulses. “Four of them. I am pretty sure,” she said.

Sgt. Lemaitre yesterday said he was confident in his account of the situation, but that he was waiting for an update on the case from investigators.

The rest of the article details these conflicting accounts of what took place.

An unidentified man died after being tasered by police at the Vancouver International Airport in British Columbia, Canada, on Sunday, October 14:

Police say the incident involved a man in his 40s who had disembarked from an international flight and was waiting for his luggage at about 1:30 a.m.

He began screaming in an Eastern European language and throwing chairs around, said RCMP spokesman Sgt. Pierre Lemaitre. RCMP officers stationed in the terminal building were called to deal with the situation after airport security failed to calm the man down, Lemaitre said.

“He grabbed a computer off a desk, he was pounding on the desk, he was sweating profusely,” said Lemaitre in an interview.

Three policeman tried to speak to him, telling him to calm down, he said. When the man refused, officers used a Taser, which discharges 50,000 volts of electricity.

“The three officers tried to physically hold him down,” said Lemaitre of what occurred after the Taser was used.

More details are revealed in this video report.

The Globe and Mail makes note of the ongoing controversy of the use of tasering which has caused several deaths in Canada:

Vancouver lawyer Cameron Ward, who has been following the issue closely for several years, said the gun, which generates a 50,000-volt electrical charge, was introduced in Canada without any independent safety testing. Sixteen people have died in Canada and almost 300 in North America in recent years after they were stunned by a taser, Mr. Ward said.

North American police and manufacturers would have the public believe that tasers are not responsible for any deaths, “but that is simply not true,” he said. “I’m not convinced these devices are safe. I feel their use should be discontinued until there has been independent testing done of them.”

Patti Gillman, whose brother, Robert Bagnell, died after being tasered by Vancouver police, said police often resort to using tasers without knowing what the outcome will be. “When a guy is going berserk, that seems to be when the taser is at its deadliest,” Ms. Gillman.

“Every time they use it, they are playing Russian roulette,” she added. “I do not know the answer in those cases. But it is definitely not a taser.”

Following so soon after Carol Anne Gotbaum’s tragic airport death on September 28 at the Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport, this incident is all the more disturbing. Not only are there concerns about the use of tasers in specific, but about the means and methods by which security is implemented in airports in general; the public must not be endangered by such mishandled and excessive security.

For more on this issue,Privacy Maven recommends EPIC (Electronic Privacy Information Center) website on air travel privacy. They quote from Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas’ decision in: Kent v. Dulles (1958).

The right to travel is a part of the “liberty” of which the citizen cannot be deprived without due process of law under the Fifth Amendment … Freedom of movement across frontiers in either direction, and inside frontiers as well, was a part of our heritage. Travel abroad, like travel within the country, may be necessary for a livelihood. It may be as close to the heart of the individual as the choice of what he eats, or wears, or reads. Freedom of movement is basic in our scheme of values. “Our nation,” wrote Chafee, “has thrived on the principle that, outside areas of plainly harmful conduct, every American is left to shape his own life as he thinks best, do what he pleases, go where he pleases.”

These are very timely words.