Experts to brief all-party committee on latest science on Taser use

VICTORIA – An all-party government committee seeking to improve policies around Taser use in B.C. is meeting with experts who will brief politicians on the latest scientific research on the controversial police weapon.

Next week’s briefings are connected to the troublingrecommendations contained in the 2009 report following a public inquiry into the 2007 death of Polish immigrant Robert Dziekanski after he was tasered at Vancouver’s airport.

The committee was appointed last June to focus on recommendations made on Tasers by Justice Thomas Braidwood, who oversaw the inquiry.

Committee chairman Murray Coell says public hearings are being held Oct. 22 and 23, and the public and stakeholders are invited to provide input.

Braidwood said in his report that he’s troubled by the lack of consistency in Taser policy use in B.C. and a lack of leadership at the provincial level in developing standards.

His report says that since 2003, 25 people in Canada have died in Taser-use incidents, and eight of them were from B.C.