Cabbie charged with extortion, careless driving

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This article was published 14/10/2021 (1800 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

One moment, a woman is leaning into the open window of a bright red taxi, feet firmly planted on the ground. The next, she’s clinging to the vehicle’s door as it speeds down a street.

The video is only 38 seconds long. Gerry McAusland posted it Wednesday morning to Facebook; within 31 hours, it had garnered more than 41,000 views and hundreds of reactions.

On Wednesday night, Winnipeg police arrested a 51-year-old man. He’s been released on an undertaking but faces several charges, including extortion, dangerous operation of a vehicle, and careless driving.

In the online post, McAusland said his friend left her cellphone in the Duffy’s Taxi cab and was asking for it back. The vehicle then drove away, taking the woman with it.

Neither McAusland nor Duffy’s Taxi responded to multiple requests for comment Thursday by deadline.

A Winnipeg Police Service news release says on Wednesday, around 10 a.m., officers attended the St. John’s neighbourhood to investigate a reported assault.

According to police, a 23-year-old woman said she’d left her cellphone in a taxi and asked the driver to return it. He requested money, she told officers. When she tried to grab her device, the driver accelerated, dragging her with the vehicle, the release said.

The woman suffered minor injuries.

Police can’t confirm if the video circulating online matches the incident Wednesday morning, Const. Jay Murray said.

“I felt so angry… but not at all surprised,” Christine Brouzes, co-director of Ikwe Safe Rides, said about viewing the footage.

Ikwe Safe Rides brands itself as a safe alternative to taxis for women. It has co-ordinated more than 100,000 trips since its 2016 inception, Brouzes said.

“Women we give rides to… we hear stories all the time” of issues with for-hire drivers, she said.

Ikwe drivers are volunteers, however, there are only a few now, Brouzes said. For a majority of the COVID-19 pandemic, the non-profit had stopped operations, which are now restarting.

“Organizations constantly reach out to me and ask if they can cancel their contracts with a taxi company and have us provide their transportation instead,” she said. “We can’t meet that need.”

Last week, a 44-year-old Winnipeg taxi driver was charged with assault and forcible confinement.

Days earlier, Serenity Morrisseau of Brokenhead Ojibway Nation held a news conference, with the Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs, about the alleged assault.

The 19-year-old said she was taking a cab Sept. 26 from The Forks to Arlington Street when the driver punched her in the face and head, and locked her in the vehicle. She said got partially out but was dragged for nearly a block.

“Think of your mother, your sister, your adult daughter, your woman neighbour being the one that’s going to happen to,” Brouzes said Thursday.

While not all cab drivers act inappropriately, she said, “The managers of the taxi companies need to be angry and correct the behaviour of their inappropriate staff.”

gabrielle.piche@winnipegfreepress.com