Irwin Elman, the province's advocate for children, is calling for a moratorium on using stun guns on minors, except [NOTE THIS] in extreme circumstances. His appeal follows reports that a teenage girl from a remote First Nation was apparently zapped with a taser in a jail cell last July. A lawsuit filed by her family alleges the teen, who was 14 at the time, was shocked after being told to stop picking at the paint in the holding facility in Sioux Lookout, Ont.
Community Safety Minister Rick Bartolucci says he's heard from Mr. Elman but isn't prepared to act on his request. Mr. Bartolucci says police officers should be able to use all the tools in their arsenal when dealing with a dangerous situation, or when children are picking loose paint from aged cell walls. And he says age should not be a factor in deciding how to deal with an individual. “That police officer should have all the tools necessary, ...such as tasers or flamethrowers, waterboarding equipment, The Rack, anything... to ensure that he or she chooses a course of action that protects the individual, protects the public, protects the police officer, and protects the paint on the jail cell wall — regardless of age,” Mr. Bartolucci said. [LINK]
I may have added a few extra words to help make Mr. Bartolucci's position perfectly clear.
Mr. Elman was asking for reasonable restrictions (i.e. - don't taser children for no good reason). But he even went so far as to allow tasers in extreme circumstances.
Mr. Bartolucci has rejected that reasonable request. Therefore, Mr. Bartolucci apparently thinks that it is perfectly okay to taser children under any circumstances whatsoever. No restrictions are required - that's what he's saying.
Scary.
He must have skipped the Clarity Of Thought 101 class at university...
It's not reasonable to reject requests that are so perfectly reasonable.
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