Judges can now swing the gavel a little harder when a bus driver assault is before the courts, following the House of Commons’ adoption of a new bill recently.
The legislation requires judges to consider the occupations of bus and taxi drivers as an aggravating circumstance in sentencing, which could lead to stiffer penalties for problem passengers.
“Many transit operators have suffered horrible assaults. We can do more to improve their safety, but this is an important step,” stated bus driver and Unifor Local 111 president Nathan Woods in a press release.
There are 2,000 assaults on bus drivers reported each year in Canada, according to Woods, who testified to a Senate committee on the dangers faced by bus and taxi drivers in 2014. But while bus drivers face frequent assault, taxi drivers had the highest rate of occupation-related homicide in Canada with 23 cab drivers murdered between 1997 and 2011.
In the interest of ensuring transit operators can do their job without fear of assault, Metro Vancouver bus drivers may soon be protected by a sheet of safety glass that would separate them from their passengers.
