Woman charged after kicking through taxi windshield, climbing inside

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This article was published 12/06/2023 (865 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A Winnipeg driver who was left frightened and bloody after a random weekend attack is part of a growing trend of disrespect and violence, a taxi company manager says.

A Unicity cab was taking customers through the Tim Hortons drive-through at 255 Maryland St. on Sunday morning, when an 18-year-old woman blocked the car and refused to get out of the way, general manager Gagandeep Brar said Monday.

In a video now circulating online, after the driver (who has been driving a taxi for more than 20 years) asked the woman to leave multiple times, she jumped onto the vehicle’s hood and kicked through the windshield, Brar said.

The woman then entered the front seat through the broken windshield, injuring herself in the process.

“The driver felt unsafe when she jumped on to the front bumper. He just left the car and stood outside so she could not harm him, and he started to make a video,” Brar said. “Customers were out, everybody was out. They were requesting (for) her to come down.”

The vehicle was running when she entered it, and the taxi driver, worried the woman would begin driving away, reached back in to shut it off. He cut two fingers on broken glass, Brar said, and had a bandaged hand Monday.

The woman began tearing out the dashboard and security camera before she was arrested, Brar said.

The Winnipeg Police Service confirmed an 18-year-old woman had been charged with causing mischief over $5,000. She was released on a notice to appear in court.

“Officers located an adult female with some upper-body injuries sitting inside a heavily damaged taxi. The operator and two fares had the fled the vehicle. She was transported to hospital and received treatment for minor injuries,” WPS Const. Claude Chancy said Monday in an email.

“Officers learned the adult female, who was causing a disturbance at the business, approached a taxi cab occupied by the operator and two fares and unprovoked, began to damage the vehicle causing over $5,000 in damage.”

A video of the incident taken by the driver has been shared widely on social media.

However, what people don’t see, Brar said, is a constant barrage of disrespect against taxi drivers that ranges from fleeing fares to assaults.

“Why is this happening with the taxi drivers? There were many other private cars, too, but why was the taxi (driver) attacked?” Brar said.

“I am getting lots of concerns from all the drivers… that they are not feeling safe at their workplace right now. They are the ones driving a car 12 hours a day, providing a very essential service to everybody who is going to their work or going to meet their friends, relatives anywhere.”

Winnipeg taxis have long been a topic of safety advocacy, with people representing both drivers and passengers calling for stricter penalties around violence against both parties.

In April, the Manitoba Court of King’s Bench heard victim impact statements from the family of Balvir Toor, a 44-year-old Duffy’s Taxi driver who was slain March 19, 2020.

Okoth Obeing, 23, was found guilty of second-degree murder. He had reached around the taxi’s driver’s shield and stabbed Toor 17 times from the rear passenger-side seat.

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Many drivers are working more than 70 hours a week to make ends meet, Brar said, adding random violence and property damage has become an increasingly regular part of the job.

Brar wants to see stricter consequences for people who harass taxi drivers and skip out on fares, and increased awareness of the troubling conditions drivers are forced to face.

“They are helping police. They’re helping everybody. They’re doing the best they can,” he said.

“But if they are being treated like this — I don’t think they deserve to be treated like this.”

malak.abas@freepress.mb.ca

Malak Abas
Reporter

Malak Abas is a city reporter at the Free Press. Born and raised in Winnipeg’s North End, she led the campus paper at the University of Manitoba before joining the Free Press in 2020. Read more about Malak.

Every piece of reporting Malak produces is reviewed by an editing team before it is posted online or published in print — part of the Free Press‘s tradition, since 1872, of producing reliable independent journalism. Read more about Free Press’s history and mandate, and learn how our newsroom operates.