Public Safety committee  Clearly, it is a concern, and it has come out in a number of documents in terms of what is called cycling or multiple uses. I think one of the directives was that it shouldn't be any more than 15 seconds. Each one is a five-second blast, but you keep pulling the trigger, which is

Public Safety committee  Do you mean in the Alfred report?

Public Safety committee  We looked at my colleague's report when we did our reports, but I can't recall that one in terms of the device. We know there are issues with the device itself. A competitor sometimes says it's a defective product, that when they discharge the weapon and it's going through, it's

Public Safety committee  I think Taser International is the dominant occupier of this area. In my particular case, their device is used by the RCMP entirely.

Public Safety committee  The answer to that is probably no.

Public Safety committee  Clearly, as I pointed out in my opening submission, civilian oversight brings a different perspective. You can be what they call acculturated. I understand that if you're a police officer, you're going to get in and do things as your peers who are in a similar position do and hav

Public Safety committee  I'd have to go back to look at what I said, but I'll tell you what I intended to say. My concern is that if we don't take some action to address the public concern and the fact situations we're confronted with, another unfortunate incident will occur where a taser will be deploye

Public Safety committee  Clearly, I recognize the taser as an instrument that the police can use; that's why I haven't called for a moratorium. I've called for a positioning of the taser on this device, and I can indicate that most of the complaints we receive are where the taser is being used in touch-s

Public Safety committee  No. Obviously it's a dynamic situation. A lot of these can be used in parallel. Clearly, if you're up in the high end in terms of a combative situation, the officer is using everything available to him. I'm of the view that if at that stage he wants to beat him over the head with

Public Safety committee  It's clarity as to where it is.

Public Safety committee  That's why I haven't said we should get rid of the taser; I haven't said “moratorium”. I asked where it's placed, so the officer knows according to policy and his training when he should use that particular technique. That's the issue, and you are quite right, it's officers' beha

Public Safety committee  No, these things are all woven together.

Public Safety committee  I'll be very concise. I don't have the power to make binding recommendations. In fact, in the legislative model I said I shouldn't, because I think the police can figure out how to do it. They might think of a better way of doing things than I would. If they don't do it, I indic

Public Safety committee  If I could respond, I'm not indifferent to the medical issue, but the documents I've seen are all over the place. What is a factor for me is the impact on people, and there are identified at-risk groups. The at-risk groups would be those who have mental health issues and those wh

Public Safety committee  Well, like my colleague's, my job is to review and to make recommendations. My recommendations are not binding. Hopefully the document can be persuasive enough that when my final document comes out, the RCMP will look at it and see its merits, and that will cause them to examine