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Calgary police fired stun guns at a man and punched him in the head before he was put in restraints and died, investigators with Alberta’s police watchdog said Wednesday.

The Alberta Serious Incident Response Team, or ASIRT, said in a release that police were called on Sept. 17 about a man loitering near the check-in desk of the Carriage House Hotel and Conference Centre.

The agency said the man appeared dazed when he was told to leave by an officer. The man tried to pick up items from the floor that weren’t there.

When the officer pointed a Taser at the man, ordering him again to leave, ASIRT said the man raised his hands and started to walk out. He told police: “I don’t want to die.”

“The lone officer tells the male to stop talking and continues to point the weapon at him,” the agency said.

It said two other officers began walking through the main doors toward the man, and he stopped and repeated that he didn’t want to die. The first officer put away his Taser and tried to grab the man.

“At no point during the interaction had the male been identified, nor was he ever told he was being detained or under arrest,” ASIRT said.

It said the man physically resisted the officer and was tackled to the ground by another officer, who then punched the man in the head. At this point, ASIRT said the three officers fought the man for 3 1/2 minutes with “various uses of force.”

The man was put in handcuffs and leg restraints, and a spit mask was placed on his mouth, said ASIRT.

“The male is noted to be bleeding from the mouth and vomits,” the agency said.

It said seven minutes later, the man was sedated by emergency crews and left lying face down. After three more minutes, he was found to be unresponsive.

“The male was then provided medical care but declared deceased at the scene.”

Calgary police said in a release that same day that officers were called to the hotel for a man “acting erratically” in the lobby who was refusing to leave. They said the man wasn’t co-operating and was still being combative after a Taser was pulled out.

Police said the man was pepper-sprayed and taken into custody and shortly after went into medical distress.

A police spokeswoman said Wednesday the three officers involved have been placed on a standard 30-day leave.

“We know there’s a family and a community grieving this loss and our thoughts are with them during this difficult time,” said a statement.

ASIRT, which looks into serious allegations of police misconduct, said its investigation will examine the use of force by the officers.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 25, 2024.

— By Aaron Sousa in Edmonton

The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.

CALGARY – An analysis of race-based data shows Calgary police used a disproportionate amount of force against Indigenous and Black individuals in the city last year.

The Calgary Police Service made a commitment to collect and report on race-based data in 2020.

The findings, in two reports released at the Calgary Police Commission, showed that when it comes to use of force, Indigenous women and men along with Black males were overrepresented compared with their population totals.

Use of force includes stuns and strikes, dynamic takedowns, leg restraints, spit masks, restraint rings as well as the use of batons, pepper spray, conducted energy weapons, bean bag guns and firearms.

The reports examine racial data associated to the use-of-force subjects and allows the police to identify and monitor indicators of bias and systemic racism.

The report also found that racialized males and females were underrepresented in numbers when it comes to use of force.

Calgary Deputy Police Chief Brad Tawfik told the commission that the information is not based on interviews with the perpetrators or victims of violent crime – but officers’ perceptions and from reports that are filed.

“At this point it’s perception data but there’s talk at the national table around whether it should be self-identification … or both,” Tawfik said.

“This is a start and we recognize that limitation in our analysis so I think it’s a good caution for all of us.”

Tawfik said the public has to be careful about drawing conclusions just from the data.

He said the data shows that only one in every 703 officer interactions rises to the level where the use of force is used.

“It’s quite small. It’s about 0.14 per cent of interactions that we have would rise to a level of use-of-force report being submitted,” Tawfik said.

“That doesn’t take away from the significance of what we see here and what we find around the data but it just gives context to a quite small sample. But it’s something we obviously want to pay attention to.”

Chief Const. Mark Neufeld said the service has worked concurrently with its partners nationally on the development of data standards while developing its own interim methodology.

“We are sharing the results of the analysis conducted by the Calgary Police Service as additional efforts towards a national framework remain underway.”

When it comes to victims of violent crime, Indigenous individuals are 2.5 times overrepresented as victims while females who are assaulted, robbed and victims of sex offences are disproportionately higher than their percentage of the population.

The chair of the Calgary Police Commission said the collection of the data has been a priority.

“Race-based data helps us better understand areas where some communities are experiencing policing differently than others, and it makes it possible to track the effectiveness of the ongoing work in this area,” said Shawn Cornett.

“While the release of these reports is a big step in the right direction, we know it is not the last step. There will be a lot more analysis and hard work ahead that this data will make possible.”

A report released by police in Toronto in 2022 found 39 per cent of people police used force against in 2020 were Black.

It also found Black residents were more likely to have a police officer point a firearm at them when they appeared to be unarmed than white people.

Toronto’s police chief publicly apologized.

Other findings in the report include that of the approximately 5,000 missing persons reported last year, youth between 12 and 17 make up more than half of all reports and that female Indigenous youth with chronic histories are the most overrepresented group.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 25, 2024.

The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.

MONTREAL – Dockworkers at the Port of Montreal have approved a strike mandate after more than a year of contract negotiations.

Longshore workers voted 97.9 per cent in favour of granting their union executive the authority to call a strike if it chooses.

The union local, affiliated with the Canadian Union of Public Employees, would need to issue a 72-hour notice before its nearly 1,200 members could walk off the job.

As far back as May, a handful of transport companies began to reroute cargo away from the country’s second-biggest port over fears of potential job action.

Montreal dockworkers last hit the picket lines in August 2020 in a 12-day strike that left 11,500 containers languishing on the waterfront.

The parties remain in mediation, and the Maritime Employers Association says it hopes to hash out a deal at the table in the coming days.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 25, 2024.

The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.