This is the question you should stop asking your taxi driver
It's a question drivers hear multiple times a day. Have you asked it?
"Where are you from?"
It's a question that for many can seem like a good ice-breaker, especially when you're in a cab and are dreading a silent ride. But it can be a loaded question that can cause discomfort and even pain for some of the people behind the wheel.
"Some people ask it because they're curious, but many people they ask it to make fun of you, like you're not Canadian because you speak with an accent," said Hazem Alasmar, a cab driver in London, Ont. "It touches my heart."
"I say I'm Canadian, and I'm not lying, but they say 'no, you're not because you weren't born here.' So is this the judgment? If you're not born here, you're not [Canadian]?"
"I'm proud of my roots and everybody came here from somewhere, but we are all Canadian. People shouldn't be judged by their accents or anything else," he added.
It's like a song. When you hear it a lot, you get sick of it.- Salem Al-Fuady, London Cabbie
Alasmar says that if the passenger is nice and they've established a rapport, he doesn't mind answering that he is Palestinian.
"But not when they get in the car and right away 'From where are you?' "How long have you been in Canada?'"
A painful response
Shideh Abdi, who's been driving a cab for more than a decade, says the question is private. How a passenger responds can be hard for her to hear.
"When I say my nationality, they think of terrorists, because right now my country is in a bad situation," explains the Iranian woman.
Abdi says sometimes passengers stopped talking right away when she tells them.
"I can see their faces change and I know what's happened ... I'm hurt."
"I love my country, but right now the situation is very bad and I don't want people thinking the people are bad," she added.
Abdi hopes people realize that oftentimes those who immigrate are doing so because of problems in their homeland.
"What can I do? I can't change my country."
Broken record
For Salem Al-Fuady, who's been behind the wheel of a cab for 20 years, the question is asked so often he's annoyed by it.
"It's like a song, when you hear it a lot, you get sick of it," he said.
For him, the worst experience is when he picks up passengers who are intoxicated and they start asking it.
"You know they are not interested in you," he said.
"I've made up a lot of countries because I came from a war-zone, and most people don't know what's going on and they start asking rhetorical questions."
Al-Fuady says he hopes people will get to know him first before diving into questions about his past. There's always the weather!
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