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from the Calgary Herald
Thursday 20 July 2000
Jeremy Hainsworth, Calgary Herald, with files from Canadian Press
Two men in Montreal died this week after being pepper sprayed by police, but Calgary officers stand by the crowd-control tool.
On Sunday, 43-year-old Luc Aubert died of an apparent heart attack as police used pepper spray to subdue him. Sebastien McNicoll, 26, died in hospital Tuesday hours after he was sprayed. Quebec officials are continuing their investigation.
The deaths highlight the spray's dangers, said retired University of Western Ontario toxicologist John Cummins. He said its use as an alternative to guns or clubs is nothing short of torture.
Diabetics and asthmatics are at risk of having an adverse, sometimes fatal, reaction to a blast of pepper, said Cummins.
Calgary city police take four hours training in the use of the spray and are sprayed themselves, said Insp. Verne Fielder.
"For the most part, it is effective," Fielder said. "We decontaminate a person that is sprayed. There could be respiratory problems . . . health problems we wouldn't know about until that person's sprayed. If someone's . . . showing violent reaction to it, the medical people are called."
Fielder said use of the spray is not common in Calgary.
Emergency Medical Services spokesman Fred Hyland said pepper spray victims suffer significant pain.
"They're choking, their eyes are burning and their nose is running," Hyland said.
"Whenever we have an asthmatic who has been pepper sprayed, if they have even a very mild degree of respiratory distress, we transport them to the hospital. It can cause a fairly profound asthmatic reaction."
Steve Jenuth Alberta Civil Liberties Association president said: "We would welcome an international study into the use of pepper spray and to determine if the use of such is really torture.
"The Newfoundland Constabulary and the British police don't carry guns. I don't think they use pepper spray as often."
A June 1996 Calgary fatality inquiry into the death of Roy Sheppard, 29, determined his February 1996 death was not due to police using spray to subdue the schizophrenic after he apparently trashed a group home.
Medical examiner Dr. Lloyd Denmark testified there was no evidence Sheppard had any kind of physical reaction to the pepper spray which could explain the schizophrenic's death.
Reprinted under the Fair Use doctrine of international copyright law.
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This page created August 29, 2000
