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| John L. Hill |
The OPP investigation stopped short of recommending obstruction-of-justice charges. The review, Project Eastbourne, found that senior RCMP leadership could have provided significantly more information and documentation regarding the four officers involved. Project Eastbourne found no criminal obstruction by senior RCMP leadership but documented systemic disclosure failures, questionable decision-making, and serious irregularities. The officers who were involved in the killing, referred to as the YVR4, faced inconsistent treatment. The review highlighted weaknesses in RCMP transparency, internal processes, and political entanglement during one of the force’s most controversial cases.
Dziekański died after RCMP officers tasered and restrained him at Vancouver International Airport. Police and some commentators suggested “excited delirium” as a possible explanation for his death. Still, the Braidwood inquiry, the first police investigation of the killing, and subsequent reports emphasized restraint and taser use in criticizing police handling. They did not accept excited delirium as a settled medical explanation for the death. The incident prompted national scrutiny of taser use and the appropriateness of the term “excited delirium”.
Subsequently, an autopsy report for Mazin Zaim, a 46-year-old Edmonton man who died in hospital after being restrained, handcuffed and hogtied by Edmonton police, repeatedly cited “excited delirium” as a factor in his death, even though Alberta’s Office of the Chief Medical Examiner (OCME) no longer recognizes excited delirium as a valid diagnosis or cause of death.
Zaim was arrested on Sept. 20, 2023, after neighbours reported a man behaving erratically with an ice scraper. Video shows officers pinning him face down with their knees while he said he could not breathe. When turned over several minutes later, he was unresponsive and not breathing. He suffered an anoxic brain injury and died in hospital 12 days later.
The autopsy report mentions excited delirium seven times, including in the medical examiner’s certificate stating Zaim suffered a “cardiorespiratory arrest when he was restrained prone by police while experiencing drug-induced excited delirium.” It also notes that this condition would have “significantly increased” the risk of death. However, the OCME refused to classify the death as a homicide, citing the “controversies” surrounding this type of case.
Excited delirium has been widely dismissed as junk science by major medical organizations, including the American Medical Association, American Psychiatric Association, and the National Association of Medical Examiners. It has been criticized for being disproportionately used to explain police-involved deaths.
Zaim’s family strongly opposed the term. His father pointed to a video showing his son pleading for help, and the family’s lawyer argued the case involved a mental health crisis, not criminal behaviour. A request was made for the OCME to remove all references to excited delirium, but the office refused.
Zaim’s autopsy repeatedly references excited delirium while also describing prone restraint, hogtying and anoxic brain injury, a combination often seen in controversial in-custody deaths where the label is applied. As with earlier cases, the family disputed the label and alleged excessive force.
The Alberta ministry of Justice stated that any mention of excited delirium would have come from hospital staff, not the OCME. However, the autopsy report does not show that the term was quoted from hospital records.
Similar to Zaim’s autopsy, which repeatedly mentions “excited delirium,” past Canadian police-involved deaths often use the same term to explain collapse following restraint. In many instances, the label is found in hospital or medical records and later appears in coroners’ or forensic reports.
The use of the term “excited delirium” sounds scientific and can impact whether deaths are classified as natural, accidental or homicide. This, in turn, can affect whether criminal or disciplinary charges are laid and influence public trust in investigations. In Zaim’s autopsy, the OCME explicitly refused to determine homicide due to “controversies,” echoing concerns from previous cases.
The 2007 Robert Dziekański case drew national attention and highlighted issues surrounding the use of tasers in police actions and the diagnosis of excited delirium. Police psychologist Mike Webster testified at a British Columbia inquiry into Taser deaths that police have been "brainwashed" by Taser International to justify "ridiculously inappropriate" use of the electric weapon. He called excited delirium a "dubious disorder" used by Taser International in its training of police. In a 2008 report, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police argued that excited delirium should not be included in the RCMP's operational manual without formal approval following consultation with a mental-health-policy advisory body.
Axon Enterprise, formerly Taser International, provides police officer training on identifying excited delirium, and several well-known advocates of this diagnosis are employed by Axon, with the diagnosis often based on a test administered by a paid consultant for the company.
Major medical bodies have rejected or warned against using “excited delirium” as a cause of death. The National Association of Medical Examiners and other professional groups advise against listing it on death certificates; the American Medical Association and American Psychiatric Association have also criticized or opposed the term’s use. Recent position statements and withdrawals of endorsement reflect a growing consensus that the label is insufficiently validated, non-specific and often applied in police-involved fatalities.
The use of the term “excited delirium” may be effective in shielding police from criticism of brutality; however, it has never been regarded as a justification for police to use lethal force intentionally.
John L. Hill practised and taught prison law until his retirement. He holds a JD from Queen’s and an LLM in constitutional law from Osgoode Hall. His most recent book, Acts of Darkness (Durvile & UpRoute Books), was released July 1. Hill is also the author of Pine Box Parole: Terry Fitzsimmons and the Quest to End Solitary Confinement (Durvile & UpRoute Books) and The Rest of the (True Crime) Story (AOS Publishing). Contact him at johnlornehill@hotmail.com.
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