The word of three women is worth less than that of one male taxi driver, when it comes to sexual assault. ISIS? Shariyah law? No – Halifax City Council.
ICYMI, last week, even though a police officer interrupted the driver, Bassam Aladin Al-Rawi, with his bare buttocks on display in his cab, just before charging him with sexual assault of his female passenger, Halifax City councillors can’t seem to take the leap and suspend Al-Rawi’s taxi license. Read about it from the Halifax Examiner here and from CTV here. Did I mention there were two other sexual assault complaints made by females? (update – Make that three.) None of it apparently means enough to suspend the privilege of a taxi license. Al-Rawi is free to drive a cab from 6am to 6pm, 7 days a week, as long as there is an (unmonitored) camera in the car.
Councillor Matt Whitman has been tweeting about how “innocent until proven guilty” means they can’t possibly stop the poor man from driving his cab. Let’s unpack that a bit.
The presumption of innocence is a concept from criminal law that requires prosecutors to bear the burden of proving their case, with evidence, beyond a reasonable doubt. This standard applies in criminal trials, not in every decision-making context.
But people tend to use this “innocent until proven guilty” phrase, I notice, in any and all situations that involve women reporting male abuse. And it is interpreted to mean that one’s hands are tied and prevented from taking any precautionary steps to create safety. Or should I say, it is used as a legal-sounding excuse for decision-makers to sit on their hands, when it comes to public safety and sexual assault.
Because: women’s voices often mean nothing in Halifax, in Canada, and around the world. Three police reports about the sexual assault of passengers are ample evidence upon which to suspend a taxi license. Taxi drivers have been subject to full suspension for uttering homophobic slurs according to passengers, for dangerous driving according to passengers, for uttering threats according to passengers, for wearing a medical mask and gloves according to passengers, or even for engaging in consensual sexual activity in his cab. But women passengers’ reporting of sexual violation in Halifax is being treated as meaningless until there is a criminal court conviction. This is very faulty reasoning. It is also legally indefensible for administrative decisionmakers here.
Reality check: None of the other suspensions required a criminal court conviction before passengers were believed and actions taken. Only the violated women are devalued. We don’t generally require a criminal conviction before people lose privileges relating to employment, housing, or profession.
Only a very tiny minority of perpetrators will ever be convicted in a criminal court of law. By waiting for criminal convictions before we take any safety steps for ourselves or the public, we are guaranteeing that perpetrators will have a welcoming environment in which to offend again and again and again.
Make no mistake, for a serial offender, having a mobile, enclosed space that they control, a vehicle in which to offend, can be part of a rapist’s rape kit, just as much as carrying around duct tape and a knife. Why are Halifax city councillors even remotely enabling this?
The Halifax taxi companies, to their credit, see this completely clearly. None are willing to take the risk of hiring Al-Rawi, altough he remains licensed to work independently.
Halifax City staff also recommended against restoring Al-Rawi’s license: “Our overriding principle as an authority is to ensure that all customers are safe while in care of a cab driver and the cab itself,” and “We felt that the safety of passengers was in question with this driver on the streets.”
Who will Halifax be next handing out a taxi license to? Bill Cosby? Gerald Regan? Jian Ghomeshi? None have been convicted of a crime – so Halifax apparently has no problem licensing them as safe to have women climbing into their backseats (between the hours of 6am and 6pm, only, natch.)
Photo: Beverley Goodwin
Pam, get this to a journalist – newspaper or radio! Really.
thanks. Some are covering it already and Councillor Waye Mason has promised to see if the decision can be appealed!
I simply refuse to take a taxi alone in this city anymore. On November 11th last year, following the Remembrance Day services, friends and I proceeded to our local Legion. We overindulged, then proceeded to a friend’s house to indulge a little more. By 5:00 pm, I had had more than enough, and called a cab to take me home (my husband was out of the country at the time). My memory is rather hazy of the incident due to my intoxication, but the driver demanded a kiss from me in front of my house. I obliged out of a sense of shock, feeling trapped and fear, then got the hell out of there and ran into my home as quickly as possible. I felt disgusted with the driver and myself and was extremely upset over the situation. Mad because I didn’t get the cab number. Mad because I let myself get so intoxicated that I couldn’t respond appropriately. Disgusted because that was the first time since my husband and I started dating that I had ever kissed another man.
I did report this incident to the police, and several hours two male officers came to my house (by this time, a friend had arrived because I was upset). Given my hazy recollection, and that I didn’t have the car number, there was really nothing that they felt they could pursue as I wouldn’t make a “reliable witness”. Instead of trying to track down the car number as they suggested, I decided to just move on, especially with my husband being away for an extended period of time, and the knowledge that should I make a formal complaint, this man knew where I lived.
I have not taken a cab alone since. I would rather walk down Portland Street at 3 am in the morning than take another cab by myself in this city. I have friends who work with HRP, and they have told me that experiences like mine are more common than I’d think, and that many women might not even know something like this happened to them if they passed out in a cab or were seriously intoxicated.
The actions on the part of council to this situation disgust me. Yes, this man has not been proven guilty in a court of law, but he doesn’t have a right to drive a taxi cab. I do have a right to safety of the person, and being driven in a cab by this man violates that right.
He is not the first taxi driver to be caught assaulting a passenger, and he won’t be the last. It’s about time that the city of Halifax started taking the safety of female passengers in this city seriously. In the meantime, I’ll take my chances walking.
Thanks for sharing this – I think its very helpful when people can safely share their stories, so the public knows how extensive the problem is (and it is extensive). And even if we comply to demands in order to get out of there and be safe, none of it is the target’s fault in any way. I don’t regard what anyone has to do to be safe as a “kiss” or “sexual” in any way, just something required to get the hell away from something more. I would have liked to have seen the police take the responsibility to investigate and find the taxi number when you reported this public safety hazard. Public deserves a better response, one where there could be intervention without compromising women’s safety. Some college campuses have now started systems of safer reporting of sexual assaults for example.
are you ready for a shocking news ?? A Taxi Driver in Halifax who was recently CONVICTED with sexual assault of his Passanger is allowed back to drive a taxi in Halifax , even before he completes his court sentence
And by the way, his sentence only included probation and community service , no jail time
do you have more information?
The taxi industry is hardly the darling of consumers—it is widely derided for poor service, underpaying drivers, and blocking efforts to authorize more taxis as a way of improving service.