irwinloy

Taser weapons should be banned until they are proven to be safe, according to two of the three men who hope to become Vancouver’s mayor with the centre-left Vision Vancouver party.

Both Raymond Louie and Gregor Robertson told a party-sponsored debate Thursday that they support a ban on the controversial energy weapons while an ongoing provincial inquiry is underway.

Robertson said the city’s international image had been damaged by what happened to Robert Dziekanski, the Polish immigrant who died after being shot by RCMP Taser devices last October.

“The messages that unfortunately we have been sending out into the world have been very troubling,” Robertson said. “We have to bounce back from this. I think symbolically right now the just thing to do is to institute a moratorium on Tasers until such time as the inquiry comes back.”

Louie also supported a temporary ban.

“I think that if we don’t take this opportunity to stop and pause and consider carefully the tool of the Taser that caused a death, then we’re morally corrupt,” Louie said.

“We need to make sure that these machines are in fact saving lives, and not unnecessarily extinguishing them. That’s why I’m in favour of a moratorium until we can actually have good solid evidence [that Tasers are safe.]”

Louie said police forces need better training on the weapons.

“It’s very important that we in fact as a public, we tell the police, ‘Be careful. We’re your boss and it’s important that we are not unnecessarily Tasered.’”

The other Vision mayoral hopeful, Al De Genova, stopped short of calling for a ban.

“After it will come out in the inquiry, I believe the training is going to need to be obviously more extensive,” he said. “But as far as Tasers are in place, we’ll have to see how the inquiry unravels.”

In B.C., cities with municipal police forces appoint the city’s mayor to the civilian police board.

Vision will decide its mayoral nominee at a meeting June 15. The ruling Non-Partisan Association will sort out its laundry on Sunday.

That still leaves months to go before November's civic elections. I had better start cleaning out my inbox.

Tags: vancouver, gregor robertson, al de genova, raymond louie, peter ladner, politics, npa, sam sullivan, vision vancouver, taser, robert dziekanski