Kathy Corrigan is pleased with the government's new changes to the way Tasers are used, but the Burnaby-Deer Lake MLA wants independent safety certification for the devices.
"There are CSA standards for toasters and other electronic devices," Corrigan said. "(But) there are no standards for weapons in Canada, including intermediate weapons like Tasers. It is surprising."
According to Corrigan, the only standards set for the certification of Tasers are ones that are set by the companies themselves.
"I believe there needs to be independent oversight with something as potentially lethal as a Taser, and that doesn't exist," she said. "You have to get toasters tested and not Tasers, so that's a real gap."
Tasers are the only energy-conducted weapons allowed for use in B.C.
Justice Thomas Braidwood oversaw an inquiry into the use of energy-conducted weapons, following the 2007 tasering death of Robert Dziekanski. In his final report, Braidwood made 19 recommendations on how Tasers should be used and suggested a special committee of the legislature be created to review the government's implementation of his recommendations. Corrigan, the NDP's public safety critic, sat on that committee, and she's pleased with the government's changes.
"The province has done a good job implementing the recommendations of Braidwood," Corrigan said. "The main way they've done that is they've created police standards, written standards, standards for use and training and so on."
Tasers can be used by police, RCMP, sheriffs, transit police and correctional officers, but they are mostly used by police, according to Corrigan. Conducted energy weapons are not supposed to be lethal force weapons, she pointed out.
"Now, if somebody wants to be certified to use a Taser, then they have to have taken a course in the use of Tasers," she said. "You also have to be trained in crisis intervention and de-escalation."
Since 2003, 25 people in Canada have died after a conducted energy weapon was used on them, according to Braidwood's report. Taser use was on the rise until Dziekanski's death in 2007, and it's since declined by 87 per cent. Corrigan suspects that's related to the widely viewed video footage of the Dziekanski tasering incident.
"People seeing that video and being so horrified by that video had a huge impact on people, and I think police themselves and other law enforcement agencies made the decision to use them less," she said.
That may have a potential downside, she added.
"Are police not using them because they are afraid to use them because of potential negative publicity?" Corrigan asked. "What Braidwood concluded, and I think our committee concurs with, is that despite what has happened in a very few cases, Braidwood said, we are better having Tasers than not, because they are better than shooting someone. . They are a useful intermediate weapon in some cases, but what we have to be careful of is that they are used in very restrictive cases and as a last resort."
The committee was also asked to look into any new medical research on energy conducted weapons since Braidwood's report. Corrigan said there's a national body doing a comprehensive review of the medical literature.
"But we did find . there are very few deaths associated with Tasers," she said. "The chance with death with someone who is healthy is very, very low."
Tasering deaths often involved people who were very agitated or had other medical conditions, Corrigan explained.
"The cause of death is usually something like a heart attack, essentially, but the jury is not in. We still don't know exactly why people are dying," she said.
Justice Minister Shirley Bond said her government is committed to ensuring the safe use of conducted energy weapons.
"After Justice Braidwood conducted a thorough review of the use of conducted energy weapons in July 2009, we immediately directed all police, sheriffs and corrections officers in B.C. to severely restrict the use of conducted energy weapons in accordance with Braidwood's recommendations. We also accepted all 19 of Justice Braidwood's recommendations, which are now part of binding provincial policing standards, which took effect June 1, 2011," she said in an emailed statement to the NOW.
Regarding Taser certification, Bond said the province asked the federal government to add conducted energy weapons to the list of items covered by the Hazardous Products Act.
"The federal government responded that conducted energy weapons are beyond the scope of the act because they cannot be imported or bought by consumers. However, as a prohibited weapon, they are already strictly regulated by the Criminal Code and Firearms Act. Through this, their importation and sale is severely restricted and only authorized persons and law enforcement personnel can have them," she said. "As part of the changes our government has made, we now have a testing program for all conducted energy weapons in British Columbia. According to the new provincial policing standards, conducted energy weapons are now required to be tested regularly to ensure their ongoing performance and to ensure their output is within safe boundaries."
