Cabbie’s fate in Town’s hands

MICHAELA RODRIGUE
Nunatsiaq News

IQALUIT — A domestic dispute that ended in an assault conviction three years ago has come back to haunt Iqaluit cab driver Tom Lewis, opening a debate over the merits of the Town’s ambitious zero-tolerance taxi bylaw.

Now Lewis, his family and at least one town councilor are questioning the way in which the bylaw is being applied.

Town staff recently asked Council to take away Lewis’s taxi permit after a criminal background check revealed the cab driver’s assault conviction. Lewis, who continues to drive, says denying him the right to earn a living would be plain unfair.

“I have a family and I have a house and I have a mortgage,” Lewis said. “I don’t have the education to find another job.”

Personal battle

Lewis said he supports the Town policy of screening taxi drivers for convicted criminals, but notes that he was convicted of simple assault — not assault causing bodily harm.

Under Iqaluit’s taxi bylaw, anyone convicted of assault causing bodily harm within the past five years is automatically barred from driving a cab.

Lewis’s simple assault conviction on his wife, a secretary at Nakasuk School, dates back to 1996.

“Of course I shouldn’t have done it,” Lewis said. “I pushed her. But it’ll be three years in August and five years [penalty] for that is quite a long time,” he said.

Lewis says there has been no violence between them since the conviction, and that the family needs two incomes to make ends meet.

Lewis’s wife herself wrote a letter to Town Council earlier this month asking that they not revoke her husband’s licence and allow him to support his family.

After reading the letter, Iqaluit Town Council decided to put off a decision and send the taxi bylaw back to the development, works and public safety committee for review.

SAO intervened

The current bylaw gives the Town’s senior administrative officer the discretion to recommend pulling a license if he deems that certain conviction shows a threat to public safety.

John Raycroft, Iqaluit SAO, decided Lewis fell into this category, and recommended that the cabbie’s license be revoked.

Coun. Doug Lem recently pushed for changes to the taxi bylaw in an effort to keep violent offenders from getting behind the wheel. But he now wants the entire bylaw reviewed and says he disagrees with Raycroft’s decision in the Lewis case.

“This one is an individual case that I didn’t feel fell under [the intent of the bylaw]. It was a home dispute,” Lem said.

At a recent council meeting, Raycroft advised councilors to be consistent and follow their own bylaw.

“One of the fundamental premises of Council is that it put in place bylaws that are clear,” Raycroft said.

Raycroft said it would be difficult for council to segregate between types of assault in a written bylaw.

Decision postponed

To revoke a taxi driver licence, council must pass a motion. Because council has postponed making a decision, Lewis continues to drive.

Raycroft could have revoked Lewis’s licence immediately if he believed Lewis posed an “imminent threat to public safety.”

Staff’s decision to not revoke Lewis’s licence immediately shows he does not pose a threat to public safety, Lem said.

Lem said he does not want to contravene his own bylaw, but he said this is a new set of circumstances for council to deal with.

“I’m finding that we’re revising bylaws as situations come into play. We haven’t been into a situation like this,” Lem said.

“I don’t want to work against our bylaw, that’s why I’d like to revise our bylaw before we take this case on,” he said.

The taxi bylaw is expected to go to committee for debate on July 7. Lewis’s licence would then have to go back to Council for a final decision.

Lewis has waited since May for a final decision on his licence. He said he hopes to attend the next council meeting. If his licence is taken away he doesn’t know what he will do.