Public Safety Committee on Feb. 27th, 2008

[Penny Priddy, NDP, Surrey North, BC]

Right.

Without asking you to do our work for us, let me ask you to do our work for us.

Recognizing that you could perhaps never have exactly the same protocol in downtown Toronto or Vancouver as you would have in Osoyoos or New Glasgow or in small communities where an ambulance service might be 40 minutes away, and I realize there are some things you cannot do, do you think it is possible or wise—maybe possible first, or wise first, and then possible—that we should be looking at more standardized protocols across the country in terms of the use of tasers, or should that still be left to individual police forces?

I realize that in Ontario there are some provincial requirements as well.

[S/Supt Michael Federico]

I can't speak for policing across the nation, but my experience in Ontario is that the services generally welcome an adequacy standard that gives some basic guidelines, flexible enough that we can adapt it to local conditions and local circumstances. I think that's pretty common in the institution of policing right across the country.

Our research often takes us to other jurisdictions to see what other jurisdictions are doing, and from that we gain best practices, and there's an accumulation of wisdom. I think it's probably a principle that would be welcome by most police services and police executives.

[Penny Priddy, NDP, Surrey North, BC]

Is there a best practices website?

[S/Supt Michael Federico]

There are a few: the CACP--Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police--and the Ontario Association of Chiefs of Police are excellent resources. Then there are the Ontario Association of Police Services Boards; the Canadian Association of Police Boards; and the Police Sector Council, which is a national organization of police researchers and police authorities. I'd recommend any one of those.

[Penny Priddy, NDP, Surrey North, BC]

I know there's a variety of research out there and organizations doing it. I just didn't know if there was a website of best practices.

Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

[The Chair, Conservative, Garry Breitkreuz]

Thank you very much.

Are there any further comments or questions?

Oh yes, regarding the first draft, we're going to be looking at the report on Monday, so I would just remind committee members to look for that in your mailboxes on Friday.

Do you have a closing comment, Mr. Mukherjee?

[Alok Mukherjee]

I would simply like to say that I brought copies of the board's reports for 2005 and 2006--

[The Chair, Conservative, Garry Breitkreuz]

Is that for our research analysts?

[Alok Mukherjee]

--and copies of a short article in which I talked about how we got to where we did and in which there are some questions.

[The Chair, Conservative, Garry Breitkreuz]

Okay. You can deliver that to the table here and we can take a look at it. That's a very large report. Do you want that copied and distributed to everybody?

[A voice]

Just the article.

[The Chair, Conservative, Garry Breitkreuz]

I didn't get that, Ms. Barnes.

[Sue Barnes, Liberal, London West, ON]

They're just small.

[Alok Mukherjee]

It's a one-pager.

[Sue Barnes, Liberal, London West, ON]

He has copies for all of us.

[The Chair, Conservative, Garry Breitkreuz]

It's in both official languages? Okay. He wants it distributed. All right, no problem. We'll just translate the one page. I think that's understood.

I would like to thank the witnesses very much. We appreciate your contribution to our study. I'm sure it'll be a very valuable contribution, so thank you very much.

This meeting stands adjourned.