Canada Poll: Taser use wins slim majority.

Canadians split on Taser moratorium: poll

Norma Greenaway, CanWest News Service

Published: Friday, November 23, 2007

OTTAWA - A solid majority of Canadians take a dim view of RCMP officers' treatment of Polish immigrant Robert Dziekanski at the Vancouver International Airport, but they are divided over whether there should be a moratorium on the use of Tasers by law enforcement personnel, a new national survey suggests.

A slim majority of 52 per cent said law enforcement officials should be allowed to continue using Tasers because they are an effective alternative to using a gun and that a thorough investigation into their safety and effectiveness can proceed without them being taken out of circulation, indicates the poll conducted exclusively for CanWest News Service and Global National by Ipsos Reid.

Forty-six per cent said governments and police agencies should ban their use until a public inquiry called by the B.C. government in the wake of Dziekanski's death issues its findings on the Taser.

Polish immigrant Robert Dziekanski is seen in the arrivals area of the Vancouver airport in this video footage shot Oct. 14.View Larger Image View Larger Image

Polish immigrant Robert Dziekanski is seen in the arrivals area of the Vancouver airport in this video footage shot Oct. 14.

Support of a moratorium was highest in Quebec, where almost six in 10 said agencies should stop using Tasers, pending completion of the inquiry.

Pollster John Wright said the divided opinion on a moratorium suggests Canadians are torn over whether the Taser's value in terms of protecting the lives of officers outweighs its possible health dangers.

The survey suggests 61 per cent of Canadians disapprove of the RCMP's actions on the day Dziekanski died. Albertans were the least critical, with only 53 per cent turning thumbs down on the officers' behaviour. British Columbians were the most critical at 73 per cent.

The RCMP's overall disapproval rating was even higher - 73 per cent - among those who say they have seen the amateur video that recorded the final minutes of Dziekanski's life after he was zapped by a Taser and wrestled to the ground by four RCMP officers, all of whom have been reassigned pending the outcome if the investigations.

There are eight separate inquiries into the Dziekanski incident: the B.C. government has announced a full public inquiry; Paul Kennedy, the public complaints commissioner for the RCMP, has launched an inquiry; the RCMP has begun an internal review; Public Safety Minister Stockwell Day says his department will release the findings of a Canada Border Service Agency internal investigation; the homicide investigation team from the RCMP and municipal police departments in Metro Vancouver, is conducting a probe; the Vancouver International Airport Authority is conducting an internal review; B.C.'s Coroners Service has scheduled an inquest for May 5-16, 2008; and on Thursday, the House of Commons public safety committee announced it will launch an investigation.

The poll indicates almost two-thirds of adult Canadians, or nearly 15 million people, said they had personally seen some of the video. Wright called the number astounding, and said it means there are "15 million alleged video witnesses" who probably will be watching the issue closely in the weeks and months ahead.

The poll suggests confidence in the upper management of the RCMP has not taken a fresh hit over the incident, and that it remained steady at 59 per cent, compared to 57 per cent in April.

Wright said, however, the rating is nothing to brag about.

"I would think you would want much higher numbers than that. This is Canada's national police force," he said.

In British Columbia, the credibility of the RCMP's regular forces plunged to 61 per cent from 83 per cent in April. The force got the highest approval rating in Atlantic Canada (81 per cent), followed by Ontario at 79 per cent.

The poll was released a day after the Nova Scotia government announced a review of Taser use following the death Thursday of a 45-year-old man in prison.

The survey, conducted Tuesday though Thursday, involved telephone interviews with just over 1,000 adults. The results are considered accurate within 3.1 percentage points, 19 times out of 20.