HOME INVASION AT LEGAL GROW-OP

A Chilliwack man with a licence to grow medical marijuana says he's never
going to grow it again, after he was tortured and almost killed in a
violent home invasion early Wednesday.

Brian Carlisle told The Progress he was bound with his own bedsheet, beaten
with a rod, pepper-sprayed and hit with a stun gun repeatedly, after at
least five people broke into his residence looking for a mature marijuana
garden that didn't exist.

"They were so well-organized and had walkie-talkies. They tortured me and
enjoyed it," he says. "They were posing as police as they came through the
window, but when I heard the sound of the tape ripping, I knew it wasn't cops."

Mr. Carlisle would not disclose his location, but says he's suffering from
lacerations, bruises and several broken bones in his face. "I'm just
relieved my children were not harmed," he says. His wife, Shannon, was tied
with tape and suffered bruises from punches when she wouldn't obey demands
for silence.

"While tied up in the sheet, I was hit with a long metal rod. I managed to
turn over on my back and they started with the Taser. They held the Taser
on me until the batteries ran out or I was unconscious," he says.

He begged his assailants not to tape his mouth, saying as an asthmatic with
a deviated septum, he would suffocate.

"One of them said, 'Good, then it will be quicker,'" he says. "But the
worst thing to deal with was the pepper spray. They sprayed me from head to
toe and it was like I was on fire."

Mr. Carlisle says all he ever wanted to do was secure a safe supply of
medical marijuana for sick Canadians in his years of medical pot advocacy,
but the risk of "grow rips" and the associated violence are ones he says
he's no longer willing to bear.

"I never wanted to grow marijuana, or be a farmer, all I ever wanted to do
was law," says Mr. Carlisle, who has spent the past two years working as a
law clerk in two different firms. "I worry that everyone who grows pot will
have this happen to them. People like me are being dealt a death sentence
every day that (federal health minister Ujjal) Dosanjh doesn't do something
to secure safe medical marijuana."

He says there's just no way to ensure the safety of one's family and so
he's making the decision not to grow again.

"Police are seeking the public's assistance to identify the assailants,"
says RCMP media liaison Cpl. Sean Sullivan.

Forensic identification investigators were on scene the night of the crime
to gather evidence, but no arrests have been made yet, nor have any
suspects been identified.

The home invasion on Storey Avenue was called in at just past 1:30 a.m. on
Sept. 1.

Mr. Carlisle says after he regained consciousness, he managed to get his
hands free and then slip over his fence into the next door neighbour's yard
to try to get help for his family.

He was bleeding from his face and eye and couldn't see, and says neighbours
were too afraid to open their doors to him in the middle of the night. At
least one neighbour heard him scream that it was a home invasion and to
call 911.

"If someone breaks into your house and takes control of you, it all happens
in milliseconds," says Cpl. Sullivan "You can only imagine what it is like
to be overpowered and held against your will."

He says it's more of a phenomenon elsewhere in the Lower Mainland. The
officer says it's tough to track down evidence in home invasions, which are
"a fairly rare occurrence" in Chilliwack.

"We rarely see it out here. There's no specific offence attached to this
crime other than break, enter and theft, with assault, and it can be with
or without bodily harm," says Cpl. Sullivan.

Mr. Carlisle says he collapsed in the street, which is where police found
him when they showed up about half an hour after they were called.

Anyone with information about the incident is asked to call RCMP at
604-792-4611 or CrimeStoppers at 1-800-222-8477.