Taxi, bus operators applaud Senate passage of driver protection bill
Bill S-221 introduced to Senate in May and was approved this week for House of Commons debate
Local bus and taxi drivers in Calgary are pleased the Senate has given unanimous support to legislation aimed at protecting professional drivers.
Bill S-221 was introduced by Senator Bob Runciman in May and would amend the Criminal Code to require a judge to consider it an aggravating circumstance if the victim of a crime is a public transit operator. That includes drivers of city buses and streetcars as well as school bus drivers and taxi drivers.
"They might think twice if they realize that taking a swing at a transit operator could get them a heavier sentence," said Neil Armitage, spokesman for the Calgary local division of the Amalgamated Transit Union. "You've got gangs — for lack of a better term — of individuals who think it is great sport to gang up on a transit operator."
Armitage says driving a city bus, for example, has become much more dangerous over the last 20 years and that one local Calgary Transit driver was recently threatened with a box cutter.
Bill S-221 will now head to the House of Commons for debate.
Senator Runciman said in a press release Wednesday he is confident the bill will receive strong support and become law before the current session of Parliament ends.