Racist tirade against Calgary cab driver results in no charges — again
CBC News | Posted: November 12, 2015 9:26 PM | Last Updated: November 12, 2015
Airdrie RCMP officer erred in failing to charge taxi passenger initially, report finds
The RCMP has apologized to a Calgary cab driver, but says charges will not be laid against a passenger who unleashed a racist tirade caught on video before ripping the camera out of the taxi's dashboard in a case that attracted the national spotlight.
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The decision comes as the results of an RCMP review looking into the incident were released Thursday.
The RCMP officer who originally responded to the call in Airdrie in 2013 did not charge the passenger at the time, instead encouraging him to pay the driver for damages after the camera mounted on the taxi's dashboard was ripped out. The passenger did so.
The investigation was reopened after a video surfaced showing the exchange surfaced in July.
WARNING: Graphic language
"You son-of-a-bitch, you f—ing (expletive), go back to where you're from, take your wife and four kids," the passenger yelled.
But the taxi driver, Sardar Qayyum, filed a formal complaint with the RCMP's Civilian Review and Complaints Commission (CRCC) over how the matter was handled.
Investigators determined that a charge of mischief for wilful damage to property may have been warranted before the investigating officer intervened to negotiate compensation for the cabbie, but not after.
"The quid pro quo that arose when the passenger paid the driver money for the damages to his taxi upon the understanding that he would not be charged and prosecuted raises a significant issue respecting the passenger's Charter Rights," said the RCMP in a release.
Cpl. Sharon Franks, the RCMP's spokesperson for southern Alberta, said she is unsure precisely how much Qayyum was paid by the abusive passenger.
"In addition to paying the fare for the vehicle, he actually paid Mr. Qayyum some of his lost wages, because he was unable to go to work for a little bit of time after the incident."
Franks adds that because some compensation was paid to Qayyum, there is little more that the RCMP can do.
"Under Section 7 of the Charter of Rights it says you can not be charged or punished twice for one incident and that would be what this would be."
A position that was supported during the RCMP's review of the incident.
"The Crown determined that charging the passenger and prosecuting him at this point would amount to an abuse of process and that any prosecution would now be contrary to the public interest."
Apology issued
The report went on to say that while the officer completed the basics of an investigation, she made very little effort to "bring the accused before the court for prosecution," the report said.
The officer in charge of the Airdrie RCMP, Insp. Gord Sage, met personally with the victim in the case to explain the outcome of the review to him.
The original investigating officer has been given instructions on how to better handle such matters in the future and no longer works in Alberta.
"The RCMP would like to publicly announce our apology to Mr. Qayyum,... as the service provided to him did not accomplish a satisfactory outcome for him," RCMP said in the release.