A Winnipeg cab driver has been arrested and faces charges of forcible confinement and assault following an alleged incident last weekend involving a young Indigenous woman.
Serenity Morrisseau, 19, came forward with allegations against the Unicity driver last week. The man, 44, was arrested Tuesday.
Morrisseau said she was riding in the cab with friends when they felt unsafe. She said two of her friends got out of the cab, and so did the driver, who allegedly punched her in the face through an open window before getting back in the cab and driving off — with her still inside.
“I unlock the door. I kind of fell a little bit and my foot and I was just hanging outside of the cab. I could feel the burning on my feet coming from being dragged at like 30 kilometres an hour down Arlington,” she said.
As the cab drove away, cellphone footage taken by Morrisseau’s friend captured the young woman screaming for help.
At a news conference last Tuesday at the offices of the Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs (AMC), Morrisseau said her fighting instincts kicked in at that point.
“I grabbed his forehead and his eyes with my fingernails … stuck my hand through there and grabbed his face and made him stop that car,” she said.
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“I probably would not be sitting here right now to tell this story at all. I don’t know where I would have ended up. I don’t know where he was trying to take me.”
Morrisseau’s mother, Juno-nominated singer-songwriter Tracy Bone, took to social media both after the initial incident and after the arrest to talk about her daughter’s experience.
“Right now, I’m with my daughter — I’ve been spending the past few days with her ever since, just really trying to find stability and help pick up the pieces,” Bone said in a Facebook video Wednesday morning.
“Realizing how dangerous our streets are for our Indigenous women and children and elders. Hearing so many stories is absolutely heartbreaking to hear.
“It’s not that these things are any surprise to us — this is the reality of the life that we live every day and the obstacles and challenges that we face as Indigenous women on these streets who are obviously targeted.”
A representative from Unicity Taxi told Global News the driver has been suspended since Oct. 1, pending the outcome of the criminal proceedings.
The cab company had previously complained that the driver was the victim of an assault and was “frightened” of the girls, adding they were acting unruly. He also claimed they were drunk.
The driver was released on an undertaking, police said, as mandated by the Criminal Code.
With files from Brittany Greenslade.
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