A pregnant celebrity is speaking out about a Metro Vancouver taxi driver’s refusal to give her a ride and kicking her out of the cab.
READ MORE: Vancouver taxi expert says he’s not surprised viral video showed driver refusing fare
Interior designer and TV star Jillian Harris took to Instagram to complain about Coquitlam-based Bel-Air taxi’s refusal to provide her a ride from Port Moody to downtown Vancouver.
“It doesn’t matter if I’m pregnant or not,” Harris said on her Instagram story.
“We got a cab to set… and they got to set and they refused to take me into Vancouver because he just said it was too far.”
Harris went on to say the driver offered to give her a ride to a SkyTrain station, but would not take her on the full trip, which she said would have taken about 20 minutes.
“Bel-Air, that’s not cool, you can’t do that,” Harris said.
WATCH: Celebrity designer Jillian Harris complains about taxi service
She later said she received several responses from people who said this is an all-too-familiar story in the Lower Mainland.
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“I’ve been getting so many messages — cabs making people walk, cab drivers falling asleep,” she said. “People saying cabs refuse people all the time so I know this has been going on for a long time.”
READ MORE: Taxi refusals jumped by 50 per cent between 2015 and 2016: PTB
“I find a lot of the cabs here are dirty and stinky or maybe not the best drivers and they’re refusing their customers,” Harris continued. “They refused a nice little pregnant lady.”
The incident had Harris making a call for changes to taxi standards or bringing in ride-sharing services, like Uber.
“When can we get Uber? I really feel like that would keep everybody on their toes and there would still be business for everybody,” she said.
“If B.C. isn’t going to allow us to have Uber, then you guys do something about the cab situation… because it could be dangerous if you don’t pick people up or if you refuse people… or in my case I was in the cab and he kicked me out, so come on!”
Coquitlam mayor Richard Stewart agrees there is a need for a service like Uber in the region.
He said the taxi driver likely refused the fare because they can’t pick someone up in Vancouver and take them back, adding that stories like this only make calls for ride-sharing even louder.
Shawn Bowden with Bel-Air taxi told Global News that because there was no complaint filed, he’s not aware of the specifics of this incident, adding the company’s drivers are not allowed to refuse fares heading into Vancouver.
Bowden was insistent the company’s taxi operators have no problem taking people into Vancouver because of the fare made by driving that long distance.
Harris says Bel-Air did eventually call another, which took her downtown but she said they had to argue with the driver for a while to get him to take them downtown.
WATCH: Video shows cabbie refusing to drive a fare from Vancouver to New Westminster
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