Taxi drivers convicted of serious criminal offences should be taken off the roads immediately, says the head of an association representing Ontario cabbies.

Sajid Mughal, president of the iTaxiworkers Association, made the comment to CP24 Wednesday in response to a Toronto Star report that uncovered hundreds of examples of cab drivers continuing to pick up fares after being convicted of serious offences, such as assault, sexual assault, impaired driving or failing to remain at the scene of an accident.

“If the conviction is a Highway Traffic Act conviction it is kind of the nature of the business – we are driving 24/7 – but if it a more serious conviction such as assault or sexual assault police should be informing the city right away so that person can be taken off the road on the day of their conviction,” Mughal said. “The city should be revoking licenses right away.”

Currently, cab drivers are required to submit a criminal and driving record to the city every four years in order to retain their license.

They are also supposed to report any criminal or Highway Traffic Act convictions to the city when they happen, but there is nothing forcing them to do so.

Speaking with CP24 Wednesday, Mughal said a system needs to be put in place that will see serious convictions involving taxi drivers automatically relayed to the Toronto Licensing Tribunal for review.

The licensing tribunal would then arrange a hearing, where they could decide to revoke the driver’s license or impose a suspension or lesser penalty.

“I think police need to be informing the city right away,” Mughal told CP24. “We don’t need police checks every year. There really is no need for that, but when cases of a particular nature happen the city should be informed right away.”

The Star report detailed the story of a taxi driver that was convicted in 2005 of sexually assaulting a 13-year-old mentally challenged girl while driving her to school.

Despite becoming aware of the conviction in 2008, the city did not stage a hearing on the matter until 2011, ultimately revoking the driver’s license in 2012.

“We can only work with the information we are provided and unfortunately we are not seeing information coming back to us; things like convictions, things like complaints that we are not being made aware of,” Beck Taxi Operations Manager Kristine Hubbard told CP24 Wednesday afternoon. “Certain drivers are slipping through the cracks.”

Toronto taxi drivers are considered to be independent contractors and are not considered employees of any particular company.

That can create difficulties in monitoring problem drivers.

Hubbard said the taxi industry needs to work with the city to ensure that problem drivers don’t slip through the cracks.

“If we say ‘no you can’t drive a Becks Taxi,’ where are they driving tomorrow?” she asked. “They can drive a different brokerage tomorrow, independently the next day and that’s why we really have to address this problem.”

Licensing Services Director Bruce Robertson, meanwhile, said the blame may rest with the licensing tribunal; not city hall.

“They don’t slip through the cracks in terms of staff,” he said. “Staff do their part in the process, but once staff put something in front of the licensing tribunal it is an arms-length body and it is up to them to make the final decision.”

Tribunal rejects blame

The Toronto Licensing Tribunal is a seven-person arms-length panel that hears cases relating to violations of the city’s licensing bylaw

According to Chair Lionel Miskin, the panel is limited in its scope by the fact that it can only investigate cases brought to it by the city staff.

“We can only deal with cases that are brought before us,” he told CP24 Wednesday afternoon. “Until a case comes to us we have no power to investigate or call anybody in.”

According to Miskin, the panel hears about 300 cases involving taxi drivers each year and on average revokes about 50 licenses. Lesser penalties, including suspensions and probation, are issued in other cases.

“The vast majority of people who we allow to retain licenses never come before us again, so our success rate in that regard is very high,” Miskin told CP24. “Essentially what we are trying to determine is if this person can carry on their business without risk to the public and in most cases we find that is the case because we have the power to put people on probation and impose conditions.”

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