Who's driving your cab? St. John's taxi trade put to the test
Undercover investigation reveals gaps in oversight of cab drivers in N.L.'s capital city
A CBC News investigation has found significant gaps in the way the taxi industry in St. John's is regulated and calls into question who's in charge of overseeing drivers — and whether the system is working.
City council says it's not responsible. So who is?
A wide-ranging CBC News investigation has found:
- Correspondence from the chief of the Royal Newfoundland Constabulary to the City of St. John's that flagged the lack of regulations and municipal oversight of cab drivers.
- Revelations that a taxi driver, now charged with sexually assaulting two women while he was on the job, actually had a criminal record for breaching a court order at the time of those alleged offences — something that should have shown up in a background check.
- Apparently lax oversight by a well-known taxi company, as a CBC undercover operation resulted in a producer being offered a job driving a taxi despite never having provided a criminal record check.
- A woman who says she was sexually assaulted in a taxi having her complaint fall on deaf ears.
Everybody seemed mad but also nobody seemed surprised. Like I said, it's the worst kept secret in St. John's.- Sarah Walsh, says she was sexually assaulted in a cab
Until recently, the City of St. John's website indicated that council regulates taxi drivers.
But in a response to an access to information request from CBC News, the city said that is not actually the case. It instead only licences taxi companies and vehicles.
That means the onus falls on the taxi companies themselves to ensure drivers are up to spec.
5 sexual assault complaints this year
That was something the chief of the Royal Newfoundland Constabulary raised as an issue in June, as the RNC investigated sexual assault complaints involving cab drivers.
"It has come to our attention that the City of St. John's does not have regulations in place requiring that taxi drivers produce a certificate of conduct and vulnerable sector check as a condition of being permitted to operate a taxi in the city," RNC Chief Bill Janes wrote in a letter on June 1.
"In fact, the St. John's Taxi By-Law does not regulate the taxi driver and it appears that anyone with a valid driver's licence can operate a taxi in St. John's."
In a statement to CBC News, Janes said taxi drivers do great work in the community.
But he said "we believe that appropriate screening of those seeking employment with taxi companies would be a move in the right direction."
This year, the RNC has received five reports of sexual assaults where the suspect was believed to be a taxi driver. There were five such complaints the year before, and just one in 2014.
Charges were laid in two of those investigations, against one driver. Some cases remain under investigation while in the others, victims declined to proceed.
Past charges against cabbie
Two of those charges were laid against Lulzim (Leon) Jakupaj, 32, this summer.
Jakupaj is accused of sexually assaulting two women in Mount Pearl and Paradise in March, while he was on duty as a cab driver.
A CBC News investigation found that Jakupaj would have had a criminal record at the time.
In April 2015, he was convicted of breaching court orders, after police stopped him driving a taxi with two passengers at 4 a.m. on Pitts Memorial Drive in St. John's. At the time, Jakupaj was on a condition to remain within his residence from 11 p.m. and 7 a.m.
Jakupaj was found guilty and was given an absolute discharge — something that should have shown up on any background checks for the next year, before it was expunged from his record.
Had his employer asked for a background check, it may have raised questions about other brushes with the law.
At the time of that finding of guilt, Jakupaj was also charged with assault, uttering threats to a woman and her family, and attempting to choke, strangle or suffocate that same woman.
In May 2015, the assault- and choking-related charges were dismissed, after the alleged victim left the country and the Crown called no evidence.
Trial dates have been set for October 2017 on the pending charges of sexual assault, and an unrelated count of break and enter.
Jakupaj was initially denied bail. But he was released following a bail review at the Supreme Court in St. John's last month. As part of his bail conditions, Jakupaj has agreed not to drive a cab.
Jason Edwards, Jakupaj's lawyer, stresses that his client was never found guilty of any of the prior assault-related charges against him.
Edwards says Jakupaj has pleaded not guilty to the charges before him and he maintains his innocence.
Just a receipt will do
So, how easy is it to become a cab driver in St. John's? A CBC undercover investigation sought to find that out.
A CBC producer responded to multiple ads for cab drivers on classifieds website Kijiji in late October. All but one company — City Wide Taxi — required a criminal record check over the phone.
Instead, the person on the line at City Wide Taxi told our producer that a receipt for a criminal record check would suffice.
Upon meeting a driver with City Wide, our producer asked twice if it was OK to work before the criminal record check came back from the RNC.
"Like it's not a problem to start before the background check comes back and stuff?" our producer asked.
"Nah. Should be all right. Yeah. Just bring your abstract and the receipt (for the criminal record check) with you," the City Wide Taxi employee said.
He was told he could start in four days, and was scheduled for a night shift. A criminal record check takes about 10 days to get back from the police.
CBC News first left messages seeking comment from City Wide owner Peter Gulliver on Nov. 14.
On Tuesday night, Gulliver left a cell phone message saying the story was wrong, but did not leave a call-back number.
On Wednesday morning, he called to reiterate that the story was wrong, saying that all of his drivers have background checks and a clean driver's abstract.
He declined interview requests.
'It's the worst kept secret in St. John's'
Sarah Walsh wants to know who has eyes on taxi drivers, nearly two years after she says she was molested by one.
Walsh says she woke up outside her home in a cab on St. Patrick's Day weekend in 2015, with her cab driver's tongue in her mouth and his hands on her body.
She had been drinking and put herself in a cab to get home safely.
Despite providing a physical description of the driver, his car, and the pickup and drop off time and location, she said nothing could be done.
After trying to get the matter dealt with at the cab company for five days — she won't reveal which company — Walsh says she went to the RNC.
No charges ever laid
"I just wanted somebody to react in a way that was appropriate for the situation. It was a serious thing. It is a serious thing and I just wanted it to be treated accordingly."
Walsh credits the RNC for the way her case was handled, but says no charges were ever laid.
"[The police] were very clear that they may end up hitting a wall with this just based on lack of evidence and lack of co-operation on behalf of the cab company."
After going public with her story to The Telegram last year, Walsh says she was inundated with messages from other people who experienced a similar situation.
"Everybody seemed mad but also nobody seemed surprised. Everybody just said, like I said, it's the worst kept secret in St. John's," Walsh said.
She stressed that her story shouldn't be a mark on all cab drivers, but wants measures put in place to protect passengers.
Walsh would like to see the names and photos of the drivers posted in the back seats of cabs, like they do in some other provinces.
She also suggests mandatory camera surveillance, to protect both passengers and drivers.
Not a city responsibility, deputy mayor says
But St. John's Deputy Mayor Ron Ellsworth says there are no plans for the city to take responsibility for regulating cab drivers.
Still, Ellsworth — who is on the city's taxi committee, which hasn't met since January 2015 — acknowledges concerns about safety.
"If I felt it was really safe, as a parent … I wouldn't have taken the actions I had taken as a parent to create an environment for our kids to get safely from point A to point B," Ellsworth told CBC News.
"There is concern there but it's like everything else. You've got to be responsible for what you're getting into, you've got to understand what you're getting into."
He says it would be "challenging" for the city to check out drivers.
"Our ability to regulate the industry … there's almost 400 taxi licences on the road. If they're running 24/7 you're looking at what 1,200 to 1,500 people working in that industry. To be able to regulate that and oversight, it would be very challenging."
Even if the city did licence individual drivers, Ellsworth said, there's no way to ensure the person holding the licence is operating the cab at all times.
He said it's up to consumers to determine which company they feel safest using, and that will drive the companies to regulate themselves.
"[The city] has no ability to dictate the employment of those businesses."
Among the least stringent in region
Taxi industry regulations in St. John's appear to be among the least stringent in Atlantic Canada.
In Saint John, N.B., for example, the licensing authority is an arm's length city board. Criminal record checks and vulnerable sector checks are required for drivers.
In Halifax, the city requires criminal record checks and vulnerable sector checks for taxi owners and operators. They can get a conditional licence without one, but it's suspended if they don't produce the checks within 30 days.
The reality is it comes back to figuring out who is in that cab at 12 o'clock at night.- St. John's Deputy Mayor Ron Ellsworth
In Fredericton, N.B., the task of licensing taxis falls to the city, police and transportation committee. Drivers must say in writing that there are no pending charges or criminal convictions, and also get a criminal record check.
St. John's city council requires none of that, instead opting to let the industry police itself.
But Ellsworth said it's difficult to compare municipalities because they are governed differently.
"We have looked at the regulation piece, we have looked at what's being done (in other areas)," he said.
"The reality is it comes back to figuring out who is in that cab at 12 o'clock at night. We have no way, once again, if you own a licence, we have no way to dictate who was driving that cab at 12 o'clock at night."
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With files from Ryan Cooke