Most people hop into a cab without giving it a second thought.
“There’s millions of people that take cabs in Halifax every year,” Derek Mathers, the president of Yellow Cab in Halifax, said.
However, an increase in reports of sexual assaults involving taxi drivers has many questioning just how safe cabs really are.
READ MORE: Halifax taxi industry in ‘crisis’ after sex assaults
“We’re deeply concerned for the safety of our customers and the safety of our drivers,” Mathers said. “It’s unfortunate that it’s happened.”
Mathers says many people in the industry want to see the installation of dash cameras become mandatory.
It’s a movement that council first heard back in 2006.
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But, during that the time, the discussion was centred around protecting drivers.
“The issue of cameras and cars came up several years ago when there were actual murders of taxi drivers,” Mathers explained.
The final decision was made to let individual drivers choose whether or not they would install dash cams.
“Cost is always an issue. That was one of the reasons back a few years ago it wasn’t mandated,” Mathers said.
While he says the organization is on-board with helping drivers pay for camera costs, the taxi industry bylaw would need to be amended before installation becomes mandatory.
Commonalities exist between the four reports of sexual assaults in the last three months: they all involved women between the ages of 20-25 and happened during early morning hours.
“Often these incidents occur late night and occur between just two people in the taxi: the driver and the customer, so it creates an environment that’s potentially unsafe for both people,” Mathers said.
The increase in reported incidents is expected to bring the dash camera issue back to council.
“In the last while there’s been a rash of incidents with passengers, there’s been some 15 of them in the last few years. It should be noted there have been no convictions as of to date,” Mathers said.
But people like the Dalhousie Student Union vice president Rhiannon Makohoniuk believe “no convictions” doesn’t necessarily mean a crime didn’t occur.
“I think that sexual assaults often go unreported because of stigma, because of shame. We live in a society that unfortunately blames victims a lot of the time,” Makohoniuk said.
She says everyone deserves to feel safe from sexual violence regardless of what environment they may be in.
“You deserve to feel safe, you deserve to feel supported and you deserve to feel comfort in what you’re doing,” Makohoniuk said.
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