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From: B-Haile (eritrea.lave@comhem.se)
Date: Fri Mar 04 2011 - 15:57:18 EST
The Star
Stabbed cabbie loses his income because of city rules
Friday, March 4, 2011
Staff Reporter
Video http://www.thestar.com/videozone/948883--wounded-driver-speaks-out
Taxi driver Khalil Talke says he's been victimized twice - first by the unknown assailant who stabbed him Feb. 14, and then by the city for not allowing him to rent out his cab while he's in hospital.
Talke, whose tongue was almost severed in the attack, says has been forced to return his Ambassador cab licence to the city because he can't work.
"I'm getting nothing. Zero," the native of Eritrea and father of four told the Star Friday from his hospital bed, where his left arm is still heavily bandaged after he tried to fend off the robber.
"People shouldn't lose an income because they were attacked on the job," the cabbie said. "I'm not the first one and I won't be the last."
Talke says he returned his licence to the city after the attack.
"It's the law," he said. "What am I going to do?"
Under city bylaws, Ambassador licences must be returned if the driver is too sick or injured to work. The licence is returned to them when they go back to work.
Taxi industry officials say he is not entitled to group coverage under the Workplace Safety Insurance Board and private coverage is too costly.
Standard cab plates allow individual cabs to be used by more than one driver, so if they take sick, they can still get an income from another person driving the cab. Unlike Ambassador plates, the standard plates can also be sold, and can fetch as much as $275,000.
The two classes of licences have created what many taxi operators call a two-tiered system that unfairly affects new Canadians.
Cab driver Asafo Addai has been fighting the city of Toronto's taxi licensing policies for several years. His challenge is still before the Human Rights Tribunal with hearings to resume in June.
Talke said he's received a call from the mayor's office, so he thinks he has the ear of the city. Taxi industry officials say Mayor Rob Ford made a pre-election vow to introduce a one-tier taxi system.
"Rob Ford is my councillor," Talke said. "He's a person of his word. He has a chance to clear up things. This human rights case is costing us a lot of money, but we've got to fight back."
Talke's case has also caught the attention of of Abdi Dirshe of the iTaxi Workers Association, which is supporting Addai in his legal case.
Dirshe says "racial discrimination" is at the heart of the issue since all new taxi drivers - most of whom are from minority groups - have been denied the chance to buy the more lucrative standard licences.
Peter Rosenthal, a lawyer who is representing Addai's case before the Human Rights Tribunal, believes that city council should end the two-tiered system now so the human rights case doesn't have to proceed.
"The city should do the right thing," Rosenthal said.
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