The Council welcomed the comprehensive report by the CMC noting that it recorded that a bad situation had gotten better. The Council supported the recommendations of the CMC but argued that the report did not go far enough.
The Council said the following further steps needed to be taken:
The Council reiterated its position that the Taser should only be used where there is an imminent threat to the life of, or serious injury to, the police officer or a bystander.
The Council noted the CMC's recommendation that the Taser should only be used in stun/drive mode in exceptional circumstances. The Council restated its oft stated position that the stun/drive mode should be banned and if at all possible, turned off.
The Council noted that the report said that the Taser had been discharged multiple times on 40% of the occasions it had been deployed. The Council expressed the view that it would require an exceptional circumstance to justify using the Taser more than once, that is, to prevent an imminent risk of serious injury or death to a police officer or bystander.
Given that the Taser, as the rep01t noted, is most often used on people who are mentally ill or affected by drugs or alcohol, the main risk factors for a Taser killing a person, the QCCL said that the police should be required to call for a paramedic or other medical assessment of a person who was tasered on every occasion. The QCCL noted that this was the recommendation of the Canadian Braidwood Royal Commission.
The Council also noted with concern that 20% of the persons the subject of a Taser were indigenous reflecting once again the poor state of the relationship between the police and the indigenous community and of the excessive representation of the indigenous community in our criminal justice system.
28 April 2011