Mental-health advocates testify at Taser inquiry
Staff Reporter, The Province
Published: Wednesday, May 7, 2008VANCOUVER -- Dr. Nancy Hall and Bev Gutray of the Canadian Mental Health Association told the Braidwood inquiry into the use of Tasers Wednesday morning that they want police to de-emphasize the use of Tasers and to learn some "talking skills."
The CMHA points out there are an estimated 130,000 people in B.C. with a severe addiction and/or a mental illness, and that more than half of them, about 60 per cent, access health care directly from the hospital, through the emergency ward or in a crisis-driven situation.
A full 30 per cent of those people are brought to hospital by police.
Former B.C. Supreme Court judge Thomas Braidwood.
Wayne Leidenfrost - The Province
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The Vancouver Police Department's own report this year found that 31 per cent, and in some areas of the city almost 50 per cent, of all police incidents involved a person believed to be affected by mental illness.
The mental-health advocates had a number of recommendations for the Braidwood inquiry.
They want a core of "first-call" crisis response police officers available 24 hours a day, seven days a week; a comprehensive 40-hour training program for any first-responders who deal with the mentally ill; and more transparency and data on the use of the Taser.
Hall and Gutray said they initially supported the use of the Taser in de-escalating crises involving the mentally ill, but they are now concerned about "usage creep" and the lack of knowledge about the connection of Tasers to serious injury or death.
The inquiry continued Wednesday afternoon with officials from the B.C. Ministry of Public Safety and Solicitor General.
On Tuesday the inquiry heard from Cathy Gallagher, whose brilliant but troubled son has remained in hospital since he was Tasered Feb. 24.
Gallagher held up a red T-shirt with a hole near the heart where her son Christopher, 37, was hit by a Taser after seven Vancouver police officers broke into his Kitsilano home and told him to drop face down to the floor.
Gallagher said she had to obtain her information from police reports because her son is too terrified to talk.
The Gallaghers, who demanded a moratorium on Taser use, said Chris's condition has deteriorated to the point he can't leave hospital and live on his own.
Earlier Tuesday, the inquiry heard from Victoria police Const. Mike Massine, who trains police on Taser use.
Massine said Victoria had witnessed no death "or significant injury" directly linked to Taser use.
"People always have died after contact with the police and people will continue to die," he said. "Are conducted-energy weapons the cause of recently occurring in-custody deaths? My answer is 'maybe.' We don't know what's happening in the body. It's multifactoral and I hope we find the answer."
Electrical engineer J. Patrick Reilly, a consultant and Johns Hopkins University lecturer from Maryland, said yesterday "the hazards are very low, but probably not zero." Outside the inquiry, Reilly said the Taser is "not benign" and admitted he wouldn't want himself or any family member to be Tasered, but insisted the Taser may be one of the more acceptable weapons in the police arsenal.
Wisconsin biomedical engineer John Webster outlined by videolink his detailed experiments on pigs that concluded the chances of Taser use causing a person's heart to stop "are extremely low." Webster said the probability that a Taser could stop a person's heart, even in the worst-case scenario where the darts hit a slight or thin person in vulnerable spots near the heart, would be one in several million.
Former B.C. Supreme Court judge Thomas Braidwood will also conduct a "hearing and study commission" into the death last Oct. 14 of Polish immigrant Robert Dziekanski, who was Tasered by RCMP officials in the arrivals lounge of Vancouver International Airport.
That probe will begin after the RCMP has finished its own investigation of the death, most likely in early fall.
© The Vancouver Province 2008
COMMENTS ON THIS STORY
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Thinker
Wed, May 7, 08 at 05:38 PM
It really depresses me that we should need an inquiry in a supposed civilized society in 2008. What were these thug-wannabees doing before there were Tasers. Doesn't anyone remember 25 years ago cops went to college & university for 2 or 4 years. They were expected to learn how to deal with the strung-out & mentally ill. Now it seems because Tasers exist they act like little boys that never grew up. "Look-it my my new toy, let's go play with it." I've said before we aren't hiring properly. There are demented individuals out there getting into police work. NO-ONE IS OWED A COP JOB IF THEY CAN'T BEHAVE LIKE HUMAN BEINGS.
Phil Adams
Wed, May 7, 08 at 06:23 PM
I'm just as concerned about the 'usage creep' of the mental health system by Police. Call me Delusional if you will but it seems it is now often convenient for Police to railroad problem criminal suspects into the mental health system and have them easily labelled mentally ill, unfortunately once those criminal suspects become patients the Mental Health Review Panel can at times be an unconstitutional 'Kangaroo Court', subsequently the Mental Health Act does enable Police to have their partner Psychiatrists chemically intimidate and/or chemically interogate criminal suspects again and again without a Lawyer present. Even if the suspect wishes to exercise his or her charter rights and remain silent that can be extremely difficult to do under orders to appear for regular psycological evaluations while also under orders to take mind altering drugs. The reverse onus placed on psych patients to prove to Psychiatrists they are in fact mentally stable can be a nifty new misused Authoritarian intimidation and/or interogation tool and I suggest this fact I mention needs to be re-examined by it's own Provincial Inquiry.
Phil Adams
Wed, May 7, 08 at 07:42 PM
My apology for previously misspelling 'interrogation'. Further, I should note I was refering to section 10 of the charter of rights and freedoms in my previous post and the fact the British Columbia Mental Health Act can and probably has been used by the Authorities to circumvent section 10, in particular, 10(c) - habeas corpus, and a citizens right to remain silent, should any respectable Journalists and/or Lawyers care to look into that probable malpractice.
Phil Adams
Wed, May 7, 08 at 07:49 PM
Again, my apology for previously misspelling 'referring', this comment page really needs a spell check option.
Donald G
Wed, May 7, 08 at 09:12 PM
In the 1960s we did away with almost all of the mental health facilities in British Columbia. We simply pushed those in need of mental health supervision and treatment back into society because it was deemed best by mental health workers to treat them in the community. By default the job of dealing with such people fell to the police. Unfortunately the mental health workers disappeared into the community with the patients and ended up in 9 to 5 jobs based on the mental health patient contacting the worker. In Canada we have always expected the police to be all things to all people and deal with the horrible messes society leaves behind. Why are we criticizing the police for not performing mental health duties and where are the mental health workers and facilities needed to fulfill what is obviously a mental health function. It is ludicrous that mental health is suggesting that the police be better trained to handle mental patients. Is that because mental health wants to continue their free ride in having the police be the initial responders to mental health problems in society. We may as well do away with mental health workers and just hire more police to do the job we are now paying mental health workers not to perform. What a mess.
Donald G
Wed, May 7, 08 at 09:58 PM
You are right Phil. I am sorry but , based on your comments noted above,I am going to have to call you delusional. Or perhaps I have mistakenly concluded that you were referring to conditions in that wonderful country called Canada. Good lick with your treatment.
Phil Adams
Wed, May 7, 08 at 11:54 PM
Ha ha ha, Don, if you think Canada is always so wonderful to everyone you need chemical therapy sooner than I ever will....
Ray
Thu, May 8, 08 at 01:38 AM
It is cheaper to have them charged with a crime, await trial for long periods of time in custody and then sentence them to jail. Correctional facilities become like a baby sitting agency but the Human with the Mental ILNESS gets no help and in fact gets worse as he or she has no social interaction with other people. Because of their difference they are perfect targets for predators in this system and usually end up being locked up 24 hours a day. Good Job Canada, you make me proud to be Canadian.
tired of the whining
Thu, May 8, 08 at 08:56 AM
why should cops risk there life's even more than they do when some whacked out person is acting the way he did. The key thing for the officer is to go home ALIVE!!! at the end of every day , these people are doing a thankless job with all the rules on the criminals side thank to all these bleeding hearts in this country
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