As the inquiry into Robert Dziekanski's death enters a surprise summer break, a report from another phase of hearings last year to broadly examine Taser use is inching closer to being released to the public.
Commissioner Thomas Braidwood, who's been hearing evidence for months about Dziekanski's fatal confrontation with the RCMP, handed his final report on Taser use in British Columbia to the provincial government on Monday.
The former judge's report from the first phase of the inquiry, held last spring, will include recommendations related to the controversial stun guns.
The report will go through internal government reviews before heading to cabinet, although it's not clear how long it will be until the public sees Braidwood's recommendations.
"You can't nail it down, it will take as long as it takes," said Shawn Robbins, a spokesman for the attorney general.
However, Robbins said the process can move fairly quickly, noting it took about a month for the report into the police-related death of Frank Paul to be released after former judge William Davies was finished with it.
Braidwood's report will almost certainly be public long before the second phase of the inquiry, examining Dziekanski's death specifically, resumes in September.
The public inquiry, which is looking at the events that led to Dziekanski's death at Vancouver's airport in October 2007, came to a halt last week after an internal RCMP email surfaced.
Last spring, Braidwood spent three weeks hearing from an array of witnesses as he looked at policies surrounding Tasers and the safety issues related to them.
Several matters came up repeatedly throughout the informal, town-hall-style hearings, including a lack of statistics on Taser use and the absence of a common policy on their deployment.
As in the Dziekanski inquiry, numerous medical experts suggested the electric shocks from a Taser could cause heart programs.
And, as in the Dziekanski inquiry, the U.S.-based company that makes Tasers insisted the weapons are safe and offered its own experts to make that case.
Several people who appeared at the first set of hearings, including Dziekanski's mother, Zofia Cisowski, called for a moratorium on Tasers.
The provincial government will be under significant pressure to listen to Braidwood's recommendations.
The RCMP, which has already updated its Taser policies since Dziekanski's death, has also said it will be reading Braidwood's reports and be open to making changes.
The second phase looking at Dziekanski's death is on a three-month break while commission lawyers investigate the contents of an internal RCMP email that surfaced last week.
The email between senior RCMP officials suggested the four RCMP officers involved in Dziekanski's death discussed their response on the way to the airport and decided to use a Taser if the man didn't comply.
That appears to contradict the testimony of the officers, who each told the inquiry they had no plan before they arrived and only used the Taser when Dziekanski, who had been throwing furniture, threatened them with a stapler.
The officers, the RCMP and one of the Mounties referenced in the email insist it is incorrect and probably the result of a misunderstanding.
The inquiry was initially scheduled to finish closing arguments this week, with a report expected by the fall, but Braidwood said the late disclosure, which he called "appalling," left him with little choice but to stop the proceedings.
The delay means his final report into what happened will take much longer.
