Winnipeg taxi driver charged with assault, confinement of passenger

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This article was published 06/10/2021 (1807 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A 44-year-old Winnipeg taxi driver has been charged in an alleged assault last month on a 19-year-old Brokenhead Ojibway Nation woman.

Shortly after 1 a.m. on Sept. 26, city police responded to Portage Avenue and Arlington Street for a report of an altercation involving a cabbie and passenger.

On Tuesday, Winnipeg police arrested the Unicity taxi driver, charging him with forcible confinement and assault. He was released on an undertaking; his name has not been made public.

Last week, Serenity Morrisseau held a news conference about the alleged assault, flanked by family and Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs Grand Chief Arlen Dumas. The First Nations organization said assaults on Indigenous people, particularly women, are common in city cabs.

At the time, Morrisseau said a ride home with two friends to Arlington Street from The Forks turned ugly.

Following an altercation with another taxi, she alleged the driver punched her in the face and head multiple times after the two friends and the cabbie exited the vehicle near Portage Avenue and Arlington Street. She said the driver got back in the vehicle, locking the door before she was able to get out.

Morrisseau said she unlocked the door and was able to get part of her body out of the taxi, but was dragged for nearly a block.

“I decided that, ‘OK, he’s not going to stop, I need to actually do something,'” she said at the news event, adding she was worried she would be abducted.

She said she jammed her hand through the gap between the safety shield and the vehicle ceiling to grab the driver’s head, who eventually stopped the cab.

After the incident, both passenger and driver reported individual assaults to officers, Winnipeg Police Service Const. Jay Murray told the Free Press at the time.

On Wednesday, Morrisseau and her mother, Tracy Bone, could not be reached for comment, nor could Unicity Taxi’s manager.

In a Facebook video posted Wednesday morning, Bone said: “I am glad that there is something being done… I think it took something like this, and all of us being able to come together to support one another to have charges… laid upon this cab driver.”

Bone organized a gathering on the Manitoba legislative grounds last week, where people were encouraged to share experiences of racism and violence in city taxis, before a protest was held outside of the taxi company’s headquarters.

erik.pindera@freepress.mb.ca