Saskatoon taxi drivers push for safety shields in vehicles
Drivers say they need more protection after assaults, robberies
Taxi drivers in Saskatoon say they're not willing to risk driving after dark out of fear for their own safety.
"I am not feeling safe in the night time," said Baljit Singh, who has driven a taxi in Saskatoon for the past six years. "In the night time, lots of people, they're stumbling; they're drunk; they're drugged; they don't know what they're doing."
Singh has been punched and stabbed by male passengers on two separate occasions. Earlier this month, he was unable to flag down a police cruiser for help while a passenger was robbing him.
"I tried to pull over twice in front of the police car, to ask for help and [the officer] totally ignored me," said Singh.
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Drivers want safer working conditions
"There should be safety glass and that's it," said Rizwan Bajaw, who has driven a taxi in Saskatoon for three years. "Sometimes we have people that we fear, that we feel maybe they are violent."
Malik Umar Draz, president of United Steelworkers Local 2014, will address the City of Saskatoon's transportation committee tomorrow.
In a letter to the committee, Draz urged officials to hold an "open and frank discussion" on installing Plexiglas safety shields in taxis.
Draz also noted "police response to cab driver calls needs to be improved," and requested police hold training sessions for new drivers free of charge.
Taxi drivers not eligible for worker's compensation
Cab drivers across Saskatchewan raised money to support Iqbal Singh Sharma, the 31-year-old taxi driver in Regina who spent a month in intensive care, after a vicious stabbing in November.
Sharma is struggling to regain speech and his memory, and remains a patient at the Wascana Rehabilitation Centre. Although he has a wife and a three-year-old son to support, Sharma was not eligible for Worker's Compensation benefits, nor was he covered by SGI after the attack.
- Regina taxi driver out of ICU a month after brutal attack
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Draz is urging the City of Saskatoon to cover taxi drivers under city bylaws and to protect them from physical assaults.
Saskatoon last updated its taxi bylaw in 2014. The city issues licences to taxis, their drivers and requires them to run closed-circuit surveillance cameras while passengers are in the vehicle.
Both Regina and Saskatoon have commissioned studies on how best to regulate their taxi industries. Neither city currently has an independent taxi commission.