Public Safety committee  There may be some, but I'm not aware of any. Studies I've seen have looked at the mechanical electrical characteristics of the device in cold weather.

Public Safety committee  A variety of studies have looked at the impacts, the physiological characteristics, of multiple uses, yes.

Public Safety committee  Yes, I can provide you with the references, anyway.

Public Safety committee  Yes, I would just like to say that it's one of the intents of our restraint study. We're doing a prospective study, which means we're going to be looking at different cities over the course of a year and looking at all cases where there is assaultive behaviour on an individual...

Public Safety committee  Again, we didn't set any real policy restrictions; those are provincial jurisdictions.

Public Safety committee  Yes, you are. The first terminology came up, I believe, in 1988, and the research literature goes back to the 1800s of identifying deaths of a similar cause.

Public Safety committee  As you probably all know, police officers generally have basic first aid training. They're not trained medical professionals. So a detailed medical diagnostic is not something they'd be able to perform.

Public Safety committee  Again, sir, it varies from province to province. In most provinces, it is at the supervisor or special team level. To add to your question, if I may, when the police community asks us to look at something, they say, what we want from you is to understand what the medical issues are, how does this work, and are there areas where it doesn't work?

Public Safety committee  It's difficult to comment on anecdotal information that isn't well documented. I will say I have received phone calls from police officers who said, “Steve, I read your report. Thank you, because I had an incident last night. We got the individual to the hospital and they're alive.”

Public Safety committee  I've seen research that shows that someone who has been exposed to a taser has still been able to fire a firearm. So it would put the public and the police officer at risk.

Public Safety committee  It would be dangerous because an individual would still be able to fire his or her weapon with a taser. As a full use-of-force option other than a firearm, this could be dangerous.

Public Safety committee  Sir, we don't write policy. We said that you have lethal weapons and you have less lethal weapons. When we did our evaluation, we said this was a less lethal technology and therefore it fit into the spectrum of intermediate weapon, not lethal force weapon.

Public Safety committee  One of the things we looked at in our 2005 study was the effects of acidosis, or the buildup of acids in the blood through exertion. That led to our recommendation of no more than three five-second cycles on an individual, so that you did not have that extensive buildup of acids in the blood during the restraint process.

Public Safety committee  I don't have any study to that effect. I have anecdotal information from discussions with police officers of cases in which it has been ineffective.

Public Safety committee  Yes. There are situations where the victim of the pepper spray can be either the police officer or a fellow police officer.