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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.