Tasers & The RCMP

Since 2003 the RCMP has used or threatened the use of Conducted Energy Weapons approximately 4230 times.

Widespread public perception that use of the Taser is often inappropriate, punitive and unnecessary led to an inquiry by the head of the RCMP Public Complaints Commissioner, Paul Kennedy.

Often RCMP members negligently (and contrary to stated policy) fail to account for their use of the Taser, but records show that the weapon has been used against children as young as thirteen (117 recorded incidents involving children between the ages of 13-16) and as old as 82.

Frank Lasser is an 82 year old heart bypass survivor who was in hospital suffering from pneumonia. He is on a constant oxygen delivery system, but nevertheless sometimes suffers from oxygen deprivation, which can lead to strange behavior. In one such incident he unknowingly clutched a small penknife while in his hospital bed, and the RCMP was unaccountably summoned. The three officers felt threatened enough and so feared for public safety that they saw fit to use a Conducted Energy Weapon against Mr. Lasser not once, but twice. They claimed that they had ‘no choice’. Perhaps it was a wrong choice of profession for the officers.

So far 16 people have died in Canada as a direct or indirect result of the use (or often multiple deployment) of the Taser.

Perhaps the most famous case is that of Polish immigrant Robert Dziekanski at Vancouver International Airport. Disoriented and frustrated after a long flight and a ten or more hour delay at immigration, Mr.