Investigation uncovers major issues with St. John’s, NL taxi system
A CBC investigation of the St. John’s, NL taxi system has found that in certain companies there are grossly ineffective standards for regulating the backgrounds of drivers and a glaring lack of accountability when it comes to investigating some drivers’ alleged criminal actions.
CBC’s findings are in line with those of the province’s official police service, the Royal Newfoundland Constabulatory (RNC), which got wind of driver regulation issues after being urged to investigate five sexual assault complaints this year.
Two of those complaints were brought against Lulzim Jakupaj, who was accused of assaulting women while driving in the municipalities of Mt. Pearl and Paradise. It was later discovered that Jakupaj had a criminal record at the time the assaults reportedly took place. This oversight highlights a flawed taxi screening system, which is held to no municipal regulations, only the discretion of the taxi companies.
To get a closer idea of how thorough the companies were with their screening process, CBC sent one of its producers, Ryan Cooke, undercover. Cooke reached out to three of the local companies inquiring about work: Budgen’s, Jiffy, and City Wide. While the first two asked him to produce a Class 4 license, a clean drivers abstract, and an acceptable criminal background check before the process could continue, City Wide told Cooke he could still come in and move forward with things as he waited for his results to come in. When Cooke arrived for what he thought was an interview, the City Wide employee did not ensure that Cooke had proper papers and instead began giving him actual training. In fact, they set a date for his first shift having still not seen the papers.
In its investigation, CBC also followed up on a claim of sexual assault in a St. John’s cab that was first reported in The Telegram. Sarah Walsh was coming home from a party on St. Patrick’s Day weekend 2015 and had passed out in the vehicle. When she woke up outside her house, the driver was molesting her. The taxi company, which hasn’t been publicly named, had no way of identifying the driver and repeatedly brushed Walsh off.
It is clear that some sort of action needs to be taken. Whether that responsibility falls on the shoulders of the St. John’s municipal government or the taxi companies is unclear, but people’s safety in a commercial vehicle should not ever be compromised like this.