A plan to introduce Taser stun guns into Canada's prisons has been indefinitely shelved amid intense public scrutiny of the powerful weapons.
Guy Campeau, a spokesman for Corrections Canada, says the agency has purchased eight Tasers and has already conducted training sessions for guards who are designated as emergency responders.
But he says the technology is off limits until the department assesses two reviews of stun-gun use -- one by the B.C. government -- the other by the Commission for Public Complaints Against the RCMP.
Those reviews were launched last year after devastating amateur video footage of the death of a Polish immigrant at Vancouver airport was released to the media and beamed around the world.
Robert Dzienkanski died on Oct. 14, 2007, after being Tasered and pinned to the floor by four Mounties who waited less than 30 seconds before jolting him.
The footage of his last moments, howling in agony, unleashed international outrage over what appeared to be swift use of a painful weapon with little effort to talk him down.
