‘Quite devastated’: Blind B.C. woman says she was kicked off the bus due to guide dog

A woman from Nanaimo, B.C., says she was kicked off a bus recently because of her guide dog.

Donna Hudon, 54, went blind when she was 23 due to retinitis pigmentosa. It was shortly after she lost her sight that she contacted the Canadian Guide Dog Association.

Her current dog, Kobe, helps her take the bus to work all the time.

“So to find the bus stop, I will ask my dog to find the bench and then he will point,” Hudon told Global News.

“When a bus arrives, I will tell him to find the bus, find the door and he’ll, you know, take me on to the bus.”

But recently, Hudon said she has had some trouble with taking Kobe on to the bus with her.

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About five weeks ago, she said the bus driver pulled up at her spot, they got on and the driver asked to see her papers.

“I said to him, ‘Do you think I’m not blind?’,” Hudon said.

“And he said, ‘I want to see your papers’. I sat down. I said to him, ‘You do know that asking for identification and stopping like this is against the Guide Dog Act?”

But she said the driver insisted on seeing them and he wouldn’t move the bus until he did.

Hudon then said she showed him the papers, which showed her ID and that she is blind and can take the bus for free.

She then showed him her current B.C. guide dog registration card but she said the driver still insisted on seeing her papers.

Hudon said she dropped an f-bomb at that point, which she is not proud about and the driver told her to get off the bus.

“I did not get off at that point actually,” she said. “I sat back down and I said, ‘OK, well I’m just going to phone the police because honestly, this is just bad’.”

The driver then called his boss and the bus sat there until roadside assistance showed up. At that point, Hudon said she showed him the same ID she showed the driver and was told that those papers were sufficient to prove she can board the bus for free with Kobe.

“I talked to somebody today with the Guide Dog Service Act in Victoria and they told me that you’re not in Canada allowed to ask somebody to prove they have a disability,” Hudon added. “Which in essence he’s doing when he’s asking me for my guide dog registration to take a bus.”

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She said in the past buses have actually passed her by and not stopped to pick her up.

She even had a friend offer to stand with her at the bus stop and the bus would stop to pick her up.

The second time her friend came with her, she didn’t actually get on the bus, but Hudon did and said the bus driver asked her why her dog wasn’t wearing its red vest.

“I said to her, ‘Guide dogs don’t wear red jackets. It could have been a post-traumatic stress disorder dog that you’re thinking of, an anxiety dog, a dog for hearing impaired’,” Hudon said.

However, it is not necessary for guide dogs to wear a red jacket, she explained. Guide dogs have harnesses for the blind person to hold and those come in many colours but they are still a harness.

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Hudon said she did get an apology for the first incident and she was satisfied with that but she was surprised a wider message about guide dogs being allowed to ride the bus did not appear to go out to all the drivers.

She heard from another driver that the one who questioned her about the red jacket was complaining about her to all the other drivers on the radio.

In a statement to Global News, BC Transit said its goal is to ensure everyone who chooses public transit is able to ride the bus, regardless of their accessibility needs.

“We apologize for any hardship or inconvenience this customer experienced, and our organization takes this allegation very seriously,” the company said. “We are investigating this matter with our partners at the Regional District of Nanaimo.

“Guide and service dogs that are certified are allowed on public transit at all times. This does not include emotional support or therapy dogs. For customers using a guide or service dog while travelling on one of BC Transit’s services, the animal must wear its harness or leash. A customer may be asked to produce their Guide Dog and Service Dog Certificate.

“According to the Province of British Columbia, it is reasonable to expect a guide or service dog to be well-behaved, clean, well-groomed, free of offensive odours and healthy.”

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Hudon said she wanted to speak out because she was embarrassed by what happened and she is now fearful that buses are just going to drive by and not pick her up.

“I’m really quite devastated,” she said “I feel I present myself very well as an individual in my community.

“My guide dog is not posing any problems and for somebody to feel like they have to stop me to get my identification to make sure that he is a guide dog, I feel is against my rights as a human being.”