Mounrties censor Taser report.

The RCMP seems not to care that this degree of censorship is bound to increase public distrust. The RCMP seems bound and determined to give the public the least amount of information possible rather than trying to help the media uncover the facts. One just wonders if this is because the facts are not favorable to police accounts of the incident.



Mounties censor Taser report TheStar.com - Canada - Mounties censor Taser report


Polish immigrant's name, number of times he was stunned, name of shooter, all inked out
May 12, 2008 Jim BronskillSue BaileyThe Canadian Press
OTTAWA–The RCMP call it Occurrence No. 2007-34748.
Millions of people around the world know it as the infamous Taser zapping at Vancouver International Airport last October that sparked so many questions about Robert Dziekanski's death.
The Mounties have stripped any new answers from a heavily censored report on the high-profile stun gun incident, obtained by The Canadian Press and CBC under the Access to Information Act.
Dziekanski died in the early hours of Oct. 14 after RCMP used a Taser on the 40-year-old Polish immigrant and pinned him to the airport floor. Police fired the electronic stun gun's metal probes less than 30 seconds after arriving on the scene to confront an agitated Dziekanski, who earlier had tossed a small table and computer monitor in frustration. (He spoke no English and had spent about 10 hours there, expecting to be met by his mother.)
Opposition MPs and human rights groups have criticized the RCMP for suppressing details of Taser cases, including injuries suffered by people stunned and whether they were experiencing a mental health crisis at the time.
The national police force has gone even further with the Dziekanski report, deleting data it routinely releases in other cases.
Dziekanski's name is struck from the four-page form but the case lists basic details well known to those who watched an amateur video of the RCMP arriving and using a Taser on Dziekanski, who quickly crumpled in a heap.
Absent from the report is the name and rank of the officer who had the Taser, the name of his supervisor, details about the duration of the firing, and the number of times it was used in stun mode.
A written summary of the incident has been blanked out along with assessments as to whether use of the Taser helped the RCMP either ``avoid use of lethal force" or "avoid injuries to subject or Police."
A passage about whether Dziekanski was armed has also been excised. One witness says he was waving a stapler at police.
The form says the RCMP officer issued the standard verbal command, "Police, stop, or you will be hit with 50,000 volts of electricity." The lighting conditions are described as "Good artificial light."
In a letter with the form, the RCMP says it invoked exemptions under access law to protect the privacy of the person stunned and to guard confidences about its investigations and weapons.
The RCMP did not return a phone call yesterday seeking comment on why it censored more data than usual. The deletions may, however, be due to the fact the Crown is still deciding whether to lay charges in the case after completion of a homicide probe.
Liberal public safety critic Ujjal Dosanjh said the RCMP should tell the public whether Dziekanski was armed and "how many times Mr. Dziekanski was stunned," he said in an interview yesterday. "Why would that be a problem, unless that was a fact in dispute?"
Taser International Inc. chair Tom Smith and Dosanjh are slated to testify today at a British Columbia inquiry into Taser use.