Sikh truckers suing MPI for discrimination

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This article was published 14/10/2017 (2972 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A group of Sikh truckers is suing Autopac, alleging the auto insurer is discriminating against them by ordering to retake tests to qualify for trucking licences in Manitoba.

Last month, MPI gave the drivers — 23 Punjabi-speaking truckers all born in India and of the Sikh faith — until next week to book tests to requalify in this province.

Not only must the group book their tests by Oct. 16, they must pass them all by Nov. 6 or risk losing their licences.

The tests include written, vision, road and air brake tests.

With their livelihoods at stake, their Winnipeg lawyer Paul Hesse said the drivers banded together to take court action. Hesse filed a lawsuit and a related injunction in Manitoba’s Court of Queen’s Bench Wednesday.

The suit is a notice of application that asks the province’s civil courts to quash the order.

“They’re picking on Punjabi-speaking drivers. It’s not fair,” Gagandeep Singh, spokesman for the drivers, said in a statement.

Documents filed in court list the names of all 23 drivers and call on the province’s civil court to quash the MPI order and pay their court costs for sparking the legal challenge.

The court documents said the drivers each received a notice from MPI on Sept. 17 about the new rules.

The drivers have been on the road and working here, in some cases, since 2015. None have traffic infractions on their driving records.

In addition to sharing a culture, language and religious faith, the only other thing they have in common is where they got their trucking licences, said Singh. They all transferred their trucking licences from Ontario to Manitoba, he said.

Some were living there and others chose to get licences in Ontario where fees are a third to a half of the $5,000-plus for the same licence here, added Parminder Singh, another trucker and a brother of the group’s spokesman.

MPI issued a brief response Thursday, saying it’s not just Punjabi truckers who are being brought back in to retake their tests.

Instead, the insurer claims, every trucker in the province who qualified out of province and transferred here must requalify.

“MPI can confirm that a number of commercial class drivers licensed outside of Manitoba have been notified that they are required to re-certify to Manitoba Class One driver testing standards. This action is being taken under relevant provisions of The Drivers and Vehicles Act,” MPI said in an email.

The email did not say how many other truckers have been called in to requalify or when new guidelines replaced inter-provincial transfers for commercial truckers. MPI also did not clarify the status of truckers who pass through the province.

The statement was clear that race isn’t the issue for MPI.

“This action is not based on race or ethnicity but rather to address public safety concerns and the corporation’s obligation to enforce Manitoba driver testing and licensing standards as Administrator of The Drivers and Vehicles Act.

“As a legal action has now been initiated on behalf of 23 of the drivers currently under investigation, no further comment will be provided at this time,” the statement said.

The truckers don’t buy MPI’s rationale.

Together with their father, Gagandeep and Parminder run an independent trucking company called GSSS Truck Transport in Winnipeg. Both brothers also hire out as truckers for Day & Ross, a major North American trucking chain, Parminder said.

The first the truckers heard of MPI’s new rules was when they and the other Punjabi drivers got warning letters.

“We have clean driving records. We passed the tests in Ontario. It costs less. And then transferred our licences to Manitoba,” Gagandeep said. “MPI’s rules allow it. We’ve been driving with Manitoba licences for between one and three years. Now Manitoba is trying to take our licences away?”

Their suit argues the province’s driver’s licence registrar overstepped the scope of MPI’s authority.

“The decision is unreasonable. (It) is a prohibited form of discrimination, (under) the Human Rights Code of Manitoba,” the drivers’ court notice stated.

“No new facts have arisen since the applicants received their Manitoba Class IF drivers’ licences. Each of the applicants was born in India and is of Punjabi culture and of the Sikh faith,” the notice stated.

The drivers’ lawyer, Paul Hesse, said by email Thursday afternoon that Queen’s Bench has agreed to review the notice and the injunction and the matter will be heard Monday at 10 a.m.

alexandra.paul@freepress.mb.ca