Settlement reached in $1M lawsuit filed by taxi driver injured after ISIS supporter Aaron Driver detonated bomb

A settlement has been reached in a $1-million lawsuit filed by a taxi driver accusing police of negligence after he got caught up in the August 2016 take-down of ISIS-sympathizer Aaron Driver.

Terry Duffield was injured when Driver detonated a homemade explosive in the back of his cab in August 2016.

“I have to be very careful because there is an agreement to not disclose any of the terms of the settlement,” Duffield’s lawyer Kevin Egan told 980 CFPL.

“The statement of claim, I guess, speaks for itself in regard to what we alleged.”

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That statement of claim, which Global News obtained a copy of in late March 2018, said police had more than enough time to intervene before Driver got into Duffield’s taxi. The Attorney General of Canada, the Ontario government, Strathroy-Caradoc Police Service and London Police Service were named as defendants.

On the morning of Aug. 10, 2016, U.S. authorities notified the RCMP they had detected a so-called martyrdom video in which a Canadian man said he was about to conduct an attack.

The RCMP identified the man in the video as Driver and a tactical team surrounded his house in Strathroy.

At 3:45 p.m., Driver called for a cab to take him to Citi Plaza in London. The claim alleged that despite the police presence, Duffield was not stopped from pulling into Driver’s driveway. Driver then came out of the house and got into the back seat of the cab.

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Egan said Duffield had a preexisting back injury and the bomb blast triggered recurring pain. He also noted that his client was psychologically impacted by the event and is no longer able to work as a taxi driver.

“He did try it. Got in a vehicle, turned the key on and started to shake and sweat and got out of the vehicle and vomited,” said Egan.

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“He was so traumatized by the event. He realized that any time any potential passenger was approaching the vehicle with a package he would be hyper-vigilant about that and just couldn’t handle it emotionally.”

Details of the settlement will not be made public, but Egan noted that no amount of money can properly compensate someone for physical or psychological injuries, but “is the best we can do in the circumstance.” He also noted that, while he was unwilling to disclose too much of Duffield’s personal health, he has received some counselling and is “coping better now than he was then.”

– with files from Stewart Bell and Andrew Russell.