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6 Independent & Free Press, Wednesday, September 24, 2008 OPINION It's been said before but we'll say it again maybe it's time we take a closer look at the police use of Tasers. A Brampton man died in hospital last Wednesday, 12 hours after being hit by a Taser in a struggle with police in a Mississauga police station. The Special Investigations Unit is now investi- gating just how Sean Reilly, 42, died. In Canada there have been at least 21 Taser- related deaths, yet police maintain the devices are a safe alternative to lethal force. However, if you look at the ages of many of the Taser victims they are surprisingly young in their 30s and 40s and one would assume in good health. How many 30 and 40-year-olds do you know who just drop dead? Tasers appear to be pretty lethal to us. One study found Tasers caused cardiac arrests in pigs but another police association study done in 2000 said the devices are safe. Somewhere in the middle lies the truth. The police use the fancy term excited deliri- um to describe Taser deaths, but even psychol- ogists say the condition is rare and controver- sial. A person with excited delirium acts agitated, violent, sweats a lot and is unusually strong and insensitive to pain. Then, the victim's heart races and eventually stops beating. The jury may still be out on Tasers, but until there is evidence that the devices are not killing people needlessly, they should be holstered. At the very least, Tasers should not be used as a standard weapon to enforce compliance with- out the threat of serious injury or death of the subject, a member of the public or a law enforce- ment officer. When pepper spray or four burly cops will do, leave the Taser in its holster. Holster the Taser Steve Nease LETTERS TO THE EDITOR Dear editor, Dear candidates, As are most Canadians, probably yourselves included, I am not just outraged by the circus surrounding fuel prices in Canada but by the fact that neither the government nor the opposition parties are honestly addressing the issue in their cam- paigns. Given that: 1. Almost all the oil refined in Eastern and Central Canada comes from offshore sources i.e. none from the U.S . 2. All the oil for Western Canada refineries comes from Western Canada 3. Hence, Canadian oil supplies are not affect by hurricanes hitting the U.S . 4. The price of a barrel of oil did not change significantly this week (Sept 15-22). 5. The same week, gas prices at the pump across the U.S. averaged an increase of less than $0.01 per gal- lon. 6. Pump prices in Canada average $0.13 per litre or about $0.42 per U.S. gallon. How can you, in good conscience, allow the oil companies in Canada to continue to exploit the people of Canada? How can you allow this continued erosion to Canadas eco- nomic well-being? You know that these outrageously high prices ripple down into the economy, inflating prices and costing jobs in every industry except for the oil patch itself. How can you, as political leaders, not discuss this and not promise and develop a plan or policy which your party would implement if in power? I understand that some of you will argue that high fuel prices contribute to reducing the strain on the envi- ronment. I would support those prices only if the money did NOT go into the pockets of greedy oil execu- tives and their minions. If the higher prices were a result of a carbon tax and the funds were fed back into the economy through income and corporate tax breaks as well as other economic incentives, I could accept paying inflated prices. But please, this election campaign must address this ongoing criminal activity on the part of big oil. Dan Poirier, Acton Candidates should address oil issue Letters to the editor must include an address and daytime telephone number. Unsigned letters will not be published. Letters should not exceed 200 words and may be edited for content and/or length. E-mail: jmcghie@independentfreepress.com Mail or drop off: Independent & Free Press, 280 Guelph St., Unit 29, Georgetown, ON., L7G 4B1 Publisher Ken Nugent General manager Steve Foreman (sforeman@independentfreepress.com) Retail advertising manager Cindi Campbell (ccampbell@independentfreepress.com) Managing editor John McGhie (jmcghie@independentfreepress.com) Distribution manager Nancy Geissler (ngeissler@independentfreepress.com) ADVERTISING Advertising co-ordinator Jennifer Christie (jchristie@independentfreepress.com) Retail Sales: Jennifer Spencer (jspencer@independentfreepress.com) Brendan Louth (blouth@independentfreepress.com) Amy Sykes (features@independentfreepress.com) Andrea Lefebvre (alefebvre@independentfreepress.com) Brendon Stevenson (bstevenson@independentfreepress.com) Real estate: Sue Spizziri (realestate@independentfreepress.com) Classifieds: Kristie Pells (classified@independentfreepress.com) ACCOUNTING Rose Marie Gauthier, Michelle McEachern EDITORIAL Cynthia Gamble: News editor (cgamble@independentfreepress.com) Ted Brown: Photography (tbrown@independentfreepress.com) Lisa Tallyn: Staff writer (ltallyn@independentfreepress.com) Eamonn Maher: Staff writer/sports (emaher@independentfreepress.com) PRODUCTION: Mary Lou Foreman, Kevin Powell, Shelli Harrison, Dolores Black, Debbie MacDougall STAFF DIRECTORY Send us a letter! Phone: 905-873-0301 Fax: 905-873-0398www.independentfreepress.com Something bugging you? What do you think? Below are the results of our most recent online poll. For the current poll go to www.independentfreepress.com Should Canadian law enforcement agencies stop using Taser guns? Yes 29% No 71 % The Independent & Free Press is published Wednesday and Friday and is one of several Metroland Media Group Ltd. community newspapers. Editorial and advertising content of The Independent & Free Press is protected by copyright. Unauthorized use is prohibited. THE INDEPENDENT & FREE PRESS Dear editor, I would like to really thank you for publishing my letter in the paper on Sept. 12. My family and I want to express many thanks. No sooner did the paper get out did we receive two phone calls from Good Samaritans. A wonderful resident of Georgetown, Gary Tucker, called us Saturday morning and offered my son a BMX bike that he had. I especially would like to thank Sara Pring, the kind, considerate manager at the Georgetown Zellers. She called us Friday night to offer my son a bike of his choice... Georgetown rocks. My son now has a new bike from Zellers that is under lock. Thank-you. Angela Hojevac, Georgetown Good Samaritans put smile back on face of boy who had bike stolen Dear editor, With the recent outbreak of listeria the public was not informed properly of all the information regarding this outbreak. You were told to go online for the information. There was no list of affected products published in the papers, on TV or in the stores. If you dont have a computer, how do you get this info? The media caters to the public who have these gadgets. But what about the portion of the public who dont have the know-how to use them or the means to purchase them? What do we do stay ignorant of the facts to be part of the death statistics? We have the right to be informed by the good old-fashioned way called proper reporting. Our only means for information is our newspaper. Judy Kearsey, Georgetown Media left some in the dark about listeria outbreak