RCMP Hides Taser Use

More than 2,800 Tasers are in use across Canada. The RCMP are supposed to report each incident of use or threatened use of Tasers. Records recently released to the CBC and the Canadian Press have been stripped of information of Taser use. This information was previously disclosed during 2002-2005 under the Access to Information Act.

The information that the RCMP did release shows that Taser use is up dramatically: over 1400 incidents in 2006, compared with about 600 incidents in 2005.

Liberal public safety critic comments that "The RCMP is a public police force" and that "they have to be transparent, they have to be accountable."

Not surprisingly, spokes-person Insp. Troy Lightfoot declined comment.

There have been at least nineteen Taser related deaths in Canada since 2001. An analysis by the Canadian Press of about 500 Taser incidents during 2002-2005 found that about 75% of these incidents involved unarmed suspects.

The now famous video of the death of Robert Dziekanski at Vancouver International Airport last October clearly shows how the Mounties are quick-to-draw the weapon on unarmed people.