Lawyers: Taser tried to intimidate consultants.

Taser is extremely aggressive in defending the safety of the Taser in spite of many cases where it seems that the instrument was at least a contributing factor in deaths. It publishes reams of studies funded by itself showing how safe the instrument is and hires many experts who of course come up with findings that Taser approves. As in this case those who testify that there may be some dangers in Taser use and that there is a risk of death are villified and subject to character what almost amounts to character assassination. There is lots of money at stake for Taser and so this type of legal boxing is well worth the high pay of their legal tag team.

Taser International tried to intimidate consultants, lawyers say

Company launched a 'scurrilous attack' to discredit professionals by saying they are guilty of bias and dishonesty, judge told

BY JEFF LEE, VANCOUVER SUNAPRIL 12, 2010


Taser International was accused Monday of trying to intimidate consultants and lawyers hired by the Thomas Braidwood commission, which looked into how conducted-energy weapons should be used in B.C.

The company launched a "scurrilous attack" on two respected professionals involved in the inquiry, accusing both of bias and one of dishonesty, as part of an aggressive ploy to intimidate anyone who questions the safety and efficacy of Tasers, a B.C. Supreme Court judge was told.

Lawyers for the provincial government and the two men made the accusations in court as they sought to dismiss Taser's application for a judicial review of Braidwood's report into the use of Tasers in B.C.

But the company, whose weapons are widely used by police departments, prisons and security forces around the world, says it is only arguing that it wasn't given fair warning to respond to any adverse findings the Braidwood inquiry might make and that his findings harm its reputation.

In its application, Taser argued the study commission's process was flawed and that scientific and professional studies it provided to the commission were not included when Braidwood issued his final report, Restoring Public Confidence -- Restricting the Use of Conducted Energy Weapons in British Columbia last year.

But Craig Jones, a lawyer for the Attorney-General's Ministry, said Taser is trying to dictate matters simply because it doesn't like Braidwood's findings.

"It continues to dispute that there is a risk, however small, associated with Taser use," he said. "Taser's assertion of harm to its reputation remains without any evidence whatsoever."

Braidwood was appointed by the government in 2008 to conduct two commissions: the first, a study commission, looked only into how Tasers and other conducted-energy weapons are used. The second was a formal hearing of inquiry into the circumstances around the death of Robert Dziekanski at Vancouver International Airport on Oct. 14, 2007 after he was repeatedly shocked by a Taser wielded by an RCMP officer.



JOHN HUNTER LAWYER FOR DR. KEITH CHAMBERS

Braidwood issued the study commission's findings on June 18, 2009. His report on the inquiry is expected in June or July.

Taser has asked for a number of declarations, including the quashing of several sections of Braidwood's first report where he concluded that conductedenergy weapons, in some circumstances, could cause death or severe injury. It also asked for declarations that Art Vertlieb, the commission's counsel, and Dr. Keith Chambers, a medical consultant, were guilty of "dereliction of duty" that led to a "reasonable apprehension of bias" against Taser. They also alleged that Chambers was guilty of "dereliction of duty to be honest."

Those words angered the lawyers for the two men. They charged that Taser was trying to intimidate the commission as a way of discouraging future witnesses or consultants in cases against the maker of the conducted-energy weapon.

"This is pure intimidation. This is an attempt by a large company that manufactures these weapons to try and silence anybody who would speak out against them by suing them in a manner that cannot possibly succeed," John Hunter, the lawyer for Chambers, told Justice Robert Sewell.

"In my submission, that is an improper purpose and should be subject to being visited with the chastisement of special costs by this court."

Both Hunter and Thomas Berger, who is representing Vertlieb, told the judge Taser's unfounded allegations against their clients -- in which the company offered no evidence -- were so outrageous that he should also award special court costs.

"This case is the very definition of abuse of process," Berger told the judge.

Jones said the two men only provided assistance in collecting or collating documents for Braidwood and made no submissions or findings themselves. As such, the two men didn't do anything wrong, he said.

Taser International is known for aggressively challenging anyone who says its weapons can cause death. It argues its guns, which deliver a high-voltage shock to incapacitate the victims, are a safer alternative to deadly use of force by police.

But in recent years the company has come under scrutiny for a rash of deaths at the hands of officers deploying Tasers, sometimes operated in multiples. Taser worries that having its weapons declared killers would likely damage its sales.



© Copyright (c) The Vancouver Sun

RCMP Taser deaths face renewed probe.

This is from the Star.

Interesting that the RCMP has not acted on some of the earlier recommendations. Who determines what recommendations are accepted and how are such decisions justified?
At least the issue of Taser use is not being shoved off onto the back burner as yet. Taser International of course is always diligently defending its profit making Taser and collecting experts to testify to its safety!


RCMP Taser deaths face renewed probe TheStar.com - Canada - RCMP Taser deaths face renewed probe
Watchdog to examine officers' compliance
January 16, 2009 tonda maccharlesottawa bureau
OTTAWA–The RCMP's watchdog agency has launched a new probe into the deaths of people who have been Tasered by Mounties.
Paul Kennedy, chairman of the Commission for Public Complaints Against the RCMP, said in an interview that he initiated this latest review to establish whether there are patterns in the cases where people have died that call for changes.
Kennedy said he is unaware of any comprehensive look at all the deaths that ensued after Mounties began using conducted-energy weapons in 2001. RCMP officers have used the weapon about 4,300 times over those years, he said. Kennedy would not identify which cases he will examine, but said it is about 10 or 11.
Amnesty International says 25 people have died after being Tasered in Canada, including 11 who died when RCMP officers used the weapon.
In the United States, Amnesty says, there were 334 deaths between 2001 and last August.
Critics blame many deaths directly on the excessive use of force by police and the Taser's discharge of a 50,000-volt shock.
The U.S.-based manufacturer denies any link, and attributes any deaths to underlying medical or other conditions, such as drug addictions.
The RCMP's watchdog commission has already reviewed a couple of the cases, including the October 2007 death of Robert Dziekanski at Vancouver airport.
Kennedy said the goal of the new review is to see whether officers complied with appropriate training, procedures and "statutory requirements" relating to the use of force, and whether RCMP policies are appropriate.
Kennedy's earlier report urged the RCMP to do a better job of tracking when and how it uses Tasers, called for only experienced officers to be armed with them, and for immediate medical attention for anyone struck by the weapons. The force appears to have acted on some of his recommendations, but not the latter two.

Engineers counter company's claim CBC Taser tests flawed.

Taser Inc. has its own well rewarded team of experts and a well oiled publicity machine that tries its best to paint a benign picture of its weapons. Predictably it takes umbrage at independent tests that fail to conform to the image of the taser it has spent so much to manufacture.



Engineers counter company's claim CBC Taser tests flawed
Last Updated: Friday, December 12, 2008 3:22 PM ET
By Sandra Bartlett and Frederic Zalac, CBC News
Scientists who conducted tests for CBC News/Radio-Canada finding that some stun guns produced higher than advertised voltages are disputing suggestions by Taser International that their data was "scientifically flawed."
Roger Barr, among the engineers who reviewed the testing protocol, dismissed Taser International's concerns and said the CBC-commissioned tests were based on solid practices.
"The CBC tests measured the voltages and currents that came out of Tasers when they were fired. It measured in a systematic and professional way," said Barr, a biomedical engineering professor at Duke University in Raleigh, N.C.
The procedure, conducted by U.S.-based lab National Technical Systems, found that 10 per cent of the stun guns produced more electrical current than the weapons' specifications.
"This is not simply a matter of opinion," said Barr. "This is an issue of objective evidence, and perhaps not all of the evidence is in, but it is not a case where one can simply disregard some of the findings because someone else disagrees with them."
Taser International said CBC made scientific errors by failing to spark-test the weapons before firing them, which the company recommends police officers do on a regular basis.
Spark test a red herring: engineer
University of Montreal biomedical engineer Pierre Savard, who designed the testing system, says the spark-test issue is a red herring, since some Tasers delivered a higher electrical current after the first firing, the equivalent of a spark test.
"A spark test would last probably less than one second. And for two Tasers that showed abnormal currents, we were able to do repeated measurements after one or two seconds, and the current was still abnormally high after those initial tests."
Savard points out that the written instructions from Max Nerheim, Taser International's vice-president of research and development, made no mention of a spark test.
Taser International also criticized the CBC tests over the way the tests replicated electricity moving through a human body, which was measured in ohms. Prior to the tests, the company advised using a resistance of 250 ohms, but later said it should have been 600 ohms.
Savard says these changes in the testing protocol highlight a significant problem for anyone wanting to do independent testing of the Tasers.
"I think the real problem is that there's no international standard in how to test these devices and so the company is changing the protocol from one value of the resistance to the other," said Savard.
Savard said there's a need for more independent studies of the devices, but it would require a uniform protocol.
The CBC commissioned the tests using Tasers from seven unidentified police departments in the U.S., who agreed to provide the guns on the basis their identities would remain unknown.
Of 41 older-model X26 Tasers tested, four delivered significantly more current than Taser International advertised was possible. In some cases, the current was up to 50 per cent stronger than specified.
The X26 Tasers were manufactured before 2005 and are one of the most commonly used models.

A real shocker..!

This is from the CBC.
The incestuous relationship between research on Tasers and Taser Inc. is evident. In being a sponsor, a platinum one at that, Taser gains a great opportunity to push the Taser and its own research. Often this consists of inventing new explanations of what happens that employ new concepts designed to support what they wish to conclude. Excited delirium is a perfect example.
Tasers never directly cause death but they create a condition called excited delirium and this is what causes death. Of course the person would not have had excited delirium most likely if he or she were not tasered!

Taser firm sponsoring police chiefs conference
Last Updated: Thursday, August 14, 2008 12:06 PM ET
The Canadian Press
Taser International is among the major sponsors of an upcoming police chiefs conference where new research into electronic stun gun safety will be presented.
The Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police commissioned a review of conducted-energy weapons last fall after Polish immigrant Robert Dziekanski died at Vancouver International Airport when he was hit with the device by RCMP. At least five other Canadians have since died after police jolted them with electric stun guns.
Steve Palmer, executive director of the Canadian Police Research Centre, said he will present an overview of the report at the conference this month in Montreal, but said the full review of the weapons commonly known as Tasers is not yet complete.
"It's an update," said Mr. Palmer, who declined to give details. A final report is expected by next year after a full and independent peer review.
The review compares Tasers with other methods police use to subdue difficult people.
It also looks at the characteristics of those who have been zapped, including excited delirium, a condition in which suspects are in a heart-pounding state of agitation. Excited delirium has been repeatedly cited to explain the sudden deaths of people after being hit with a Taser.
Taser International is one of the platinum sponsors of the conference that runs Aug. 24-27. The corporation has sponsored similar events in Canada and around the world.
For a minimum $25,000 fee, platinum sponsors can display their name on banners and signs, provide promotional items in delegate kits, be given an advance list of participants and attend conference sessions.
Steve Tuttle, vice-president of Arizona-based Taser International, said the company's presence is important.
"You have to be there. It is a major sales event. It is advertising," said Mr. Tuttle, who will be at the conference to answer questions about his company's products.
Mr. Tuttle said that, while the new Canadian research is important, he has DVDs that contain 130 studies that have found the devices to be safe.
"You want to be there to be a conduit for information because clearly we have controversial issues in Canada, and the last thing that we want to be is shy. We stand behind our technology."
Hilary Homes of Amnesty International Canada, which has called for a moratorium on stun guns, said having Taser as a sponsor and exhibitor sends a mixed message.
"It is very troubling," Ms. Homes said from Ottawa. "What we need now is an objective discussion and accountability, and this doesn't seem to be creating the proper context for what needs to be a very frank and open debate."
Officials with the Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police were not available for comment.
Taser staff will be on hand to exhibit the company's trademark X26 model used by the RCMP and other Canadian police forces. Taser is not listed as an exhibitor under its own name, but under its Canadian distributor, M.D. Charlton Co. Ltd.
The company will also be promoting new products such as a wireless Taser round that is fired from a shotgun and has a range of 20 metres, he said. There will also be information on new products being developed, including a system called Shockwave that fires multiple Taser rounds from a distance of up to 100 metres that can incapacitate a number of people in an area.
A special video camera and audio device that police can wear to show what happens when an officer restrains someone is also in the works. A video of Dziekanski's death that was shot by a member of the public made headlines around the world, but there was no police video of the encounter.

Taser boss invokes Star Trek

I imagine that Taser is already working on or has developed a version that will kill but I wonder if the vaporisation version is on track. It could be marketed as a green version of the weapon. This article has some helpful critical remarks about Taser use. I have always thought that the question of whether tasers directly cause death is significant but less so than the question whether they contribute to death in certain conditions.



Taser boss invokes Star Trek
By Carlito Pablo
Publish Date: May 15, 2008
Strip away Tom Smith’s corporate persona as chair of Taser International Inc., and you’ll find an unabashed Star Trek fan.
When Smith fielded questions from the media after defending the 50,000-volt stun gun before a provincial inquiry on May 12, the Arizona-based executive couldn’t help but make a reference to the TV science-fiction series that he and his brother and company cofounder, Rick, grew up watching.
“We believe today we are the wired version of the Star Trek phaser, trying to get to that point where we’re using the minimum amount of force necessary to end the confrontation as safely as possible,” Smith told reporters at SFU’s Morris J. Wosk Centre for Dialogue in downtown Vancouver.
In the Star Trek universe, phasers are energy-beam weapons that can be set to stun, kill, or even vaporize an enemy. Smith claimed that in the real world and in the hands of law enforcers, Tasers are nonlethal devices that are designed only to incapacitate a person at the receiving end of two metal probes attached to wires.
Earlier in the day, Smith told the inquiry, being conducted by former B.C. Court of Appeal justice Thomas Braidwood, that Tasers aren’t entirely risk-free because they cause people to fall down. However, he stressed that the use of the stun gun actually prevents other injuries and even deaths caused by other weapons, primarily firearms.
But according to Vancouver lawyer and police watchdog Cameron Ward, Tasers have been involved in far too many deaths across North America since they were introduced.
“Many of those deaths, if not most of them, remained unexplained,” Ward told the Georgia Straight at the sidelines of the inquiry, which was ordered following the death of Polish immigrant Robert Dziekanski after he was tasered at the airport.
Ward represents the family of Robert Bagnell, who died in June 2004 after he was shot with a Taser by the Vancouver police.
According to a blog maintained by Bagnell’s sister, Patti Gillman, 344 North Americans, including 20 Canadians, have died since 1999 after they were shocked with the device. “Twenty-seven people have died in the U.S. since the beginning of this year,” the TNT—Truth…Not Tasers blog states. “Seventy-seven North Americans (that we know of) died in 2007, five of them Canadian.”
Amid often-conflicting claims about the safety of Tasers, the Canadian Medical Association Journal published an editorial on May 1 panning Taser International–funded studies indicating that the weapon is safe.
“They even set up demonstration booths where, like some bizarre extreme sport, people line up voluntarily to experience a taser shock for themselves,” the editorial stated. “Notably, volunteers are almost always shocked in the back and not in the chest, where the electrodes might cross the heart, nor do the volunteers experience the repeated and sustained shocks often used in the field, a feature that has led the United Nations to classify the Taser as a form of torture.”
The CMAJ also stated that new and independent research is needed to settle the issue of whether or not Tasers kill.
On May 12, Liberal MP Ujjal Dosanjh also appeared before the Braidwood. As B.C.’s attorney general, Dosanjh approved the introduction of the stun gun in the province in 1999. Dosanjh told the inquiry that he is “absolutely disappointed” that back then he was briefed that Tasers were safe and that their use had been thoroughly researched. “Now we know that is not true,” he said.
Dosanjh told reporters after his testimony that “all public officials are at the mercy of those who advise them.”
Although noting that there is “absolutely no conclusive evidence that Tasers don’t kill”, Dosanjh also said that he doesn’t want to “take away Tasers from the police forces”.
“I want them properly restrained in terms of the use,” he said. “I want the police officers really properly trained, and I want better research, and more and better reporting. If they don’t do any of those things, I believe that there ought to be a moratorium placed on the use of Tasers.”
Outside the Thomas Braidwood inquiry, three key players offered their views about the use of Tasers

Ujjal Dosanjh Vancouver South MP, Liberal public-safety critic, and former B.C. premier and attorney general
“I think that ultimately the Taser is a device that [police] may be required to use under appropriate circumstances. The fact is that the RCMP and other police forces need to have stronger national standards for using these kinds of devices. We need to do more research. You want to know under what conditions they ought to use it and what the guidelines ought to be.”

Tom Smith Chairman of the board and cofounder, Taser International Inc.
“We’ve done as long as 45 seconds in human exposures. We’re not seeing increased risks. I was the first person ever hit by our technology, in 1993. I’ve been tasered numerous times. We’ve had a number of studies that have been ongoing. I encourage studies. It just again goes back to this being the most studied nonlethal technology available today in the world.”

Cameron Ward Vancouver lawyer and police watchdog who represents Robert Bagnell’s family
“The device is being used far too frequently, and not as an alternative to lethal force but as a tool for compliance. Before 2000, police were able to deal with nonviolent people in distress by talking to them and, if necessary, by using soft physical force. What we’re finding is that they’re using it as a weapon of first resort. They’re using it before making any attempt to talk people down or subdue them in conventional ways.”
Source URL: http://www.straight.com/article-145633/taser-boss-invokes-star-trek

Harper Buddy now Taser Lobbyist!

This is from the Harper Index. Articles such as this that reveal close connections among industry and political actors are always interesting if rather infrequent. Perhaps we need a TV show such as that Hollywood insider crap that passes for mass entertainment these days but we should have it in the political sphere and less titillation and more food for thought.

Boessenkool re-emerges as a Taser lobbyist

Long-time friend and advisor to PM also lobbied for cancer drug plan in budget

December 31, 2007: Earlier this month news emerged that longtime Stephen Harper ally Ken Boessenkool became a registered lobbyist of Taser International after the Taser shooting death of a passenger at Vancouver's international airport. Opposition members accuse him of having stage-managed the government's response to the event. Boessenkool has always been one of Harper's most influential and least known colleagues. The following article originally was posted in June following Boessenkool's prominent role in federal budget allocations and the follow- up debate last spring.

OTTAWA, June 22, 2007 — The Globe and Mail published an op-ed piece yesterday written by Ken Boessenkool defending the Harper government's policy and actions on equalization. The Globe failed, however, to note Boessenkool is one of Stephen Harper's closest associates. Nor did it reveal he is a registered lobbyist working for a drug company benefitting from the surprise inclusion in the federal budget, passed last night, of $300 million for cervical cancer vaccine for girls.

Boessenkool has been Stephen Harper's close friend for years and a trusted advisor and confidant in almost all of Harper's leadership and political campaigns. He is a long-time Reform-Alliance-Conservative operative and is registered to lobby the federal government.

The Ottawa Citizen reported in February that Boessenkool registered to lobby the federal government on immunization policy on behalf of Merck Frosst Canada.

In his filings with the Registrar of Lobbyists, Boessenkool listed as his potential points of contact, the Prime Minister's Office, Health Canada, Industry Canada, Privy Council Office and MPs. The Globe merely describes Boessenkool as vice-president and general manager of Hill and Knowlton Alberta and a research fellow at the Canada West Foundation.

Boessenkool has been linked, as a lobbyist, to the unexpected and controversial move to fund cervical cancer immunization. Paradoxically, this is opposed by many evangelical Christian groups who support Harper.

Gwen Landolt of the right-wing organization REAL Women, has charged that funding for the program "is due to lobbying of the Conservatives by Ken Boessenkool, a senior policy advisor to the Harper Conservatives until he left in 2006 to join the Calgary office of the public relations and lobbying firm Hill and Knowlton," according to the anti-choice website LifeSite.

On equalization, it would appear Boessenkool is coming to his old friend's assistance at a time of need, possibly as political payback. The controversy has been a debacle for Harper, tarnishing the Conservative brand in Atlantic Canada and Saskatchewan and putting incumbent Conservative MPs at risk in the next federal election. Boessenkool's article is somewhat dry, as it is likely intended to be. For example, it describes the "data-in, data-out formula for determining [equalization] payments." But there are partisan politics embedded as well. The provinces are accused (three times) of "hankering for special deals." Boessenkool accuses a "previous federal government" (that would be Paul Martin's Liberals) of an "egregious departure" from the customary equalization formula and accuses them of making "ad hoc side agreements with some provinces but not others." Boessenkool fails to add, however, that as opposition leader Stephen Harper publicly supported those same agreements. He has changed the rules but adamantly denies having done so and that has created a firestorm.

Those who read his article deserve at the least to know of Boessenkool's long and close association with Harper and the Right. The two men became friends in 1993 when Harper became the MP for Calgary West and Boessenkool began to work for Reform MP Ray Speaker. Boessenkool later studied economics at the University of Toronto and worked for the business-friendly C D Howe Institute. Stockwell Day, then Alberta Treasurer, offered him a job as his policy advisor and Boessenkool accepted - on the condition that Day introduce a flat tax (a personal single rate, no matter what your income).

When Harper chose to sit out the leadership race for the United Alternative in 2000, Boessenkool became one of Day's key advisors. Day wrested the leadership from Manning, and he promoted Boessenkool's flat tax proposal at the national level. The public response was overwhelmingly negative, so the Alliance dropped the idea. Boessenkool briefly served as a member of Day's transition team in the 2000 election until it became obvious that there would be no victory to savour.

The Chretien Liberals easily defeated Day and the Alliance in the November 2000 election. Still smarting from their loss, Harper, Boessenkool, Tom Flanagan, Ted Morton and others wrote their infamous "firewall" letter to Premier Ralph Klein. They demanded that Alberta begin to collect its own income taxes, pull out of the Canada Pension Plan and the Canada Health Act, and create its own police force.

The Alliance soon began to implode under Day's leadership, and in June 2000 Boessenkool, now in private business, was among those who met to draft Harper as a successor. Boessenkool remained a key advisor and speechwriter throughout the leadership campaign. Harper won and became opposition leader, and Boessenkool went to work for him. When Harper ran for the leadership of the new Conservative Party of Canada in 2003, Boessenkool quickly stepped out of the opposition offices and back onto Harper's campaign team.

He was Harper's chief policy advisor during the 2004 election, but then moved back to Calgary to join Hill and Knowlton. Boessenkool was involved in the 2006 federal campaign as a speechwriter, and on January 23 he was among the small group who gathered with Harper in his rooms at the Calgary's Hyatt Regency Hotel to watch the results.

Boessenkool's relationship with Harper goes well beyond the professional. Ottawa writer Lloyd Mackey is a freelancer in the press gallery, filing mainly to evangelical church publications. Preston Manning had hired him years earlier to edit the Reform Party's publication. Mackey has since written a highly sympathetic book about Preston and Ernest Manning, and another called The Pilgrimage of Stephen Harper. In the book, Mackey describes Boessenkool as an evangelical Christian whose children are home schooled, and as "another of Harper's spiritual mentors listened to both at the economic and the faith levels."

While in opposition, Stephen Harper railed against the easy movement of insiders between the Liberals' political campaigns and the lobbying industry. But the two-way traffic continues. Numerous former staffers for the Reform, Alliance and Conservative parties have quickly made their way into lobbying firms, and certain lobbyists have become spinners for the government. In that light, it is difficult to read as objective anything written by Boessenkool regarding the government of his old friend and colleague Stephen Harper.