Bob’s Taxi tops the list of Most Complained About cab companies in Halifax, with reports of one driver telling an overweight passenger to stop eating so many desserts, while another driver saying all “faggots” should be shot. (When the passenger told the driver she was gay, the driver responded: you should be shot too.) Not that those complaints will cost the drivers their jobs.
Steve Adams, chair of the municipal taxi commission, says the comments, while inappropriate, aren’t so bad: “It’s not against the bylaw to be like that. It’s in poor taste. It’s basically ignorance. I’m hoping that’s not the norm and I’m sure it’s not.”
Meanwhile, Adams is impressed with how few complaints there are: “If you have 74 complaints with 1,000 drivers over 365 days and they’re working eight hours, that’s a very minuscule amount. I mean 24 rude complaints, that’s one every two weeks on how many driver hours? That’s really not a big issue.”
meego
Funny how they’re trying to minimize the issue, eh? Funny that! But then, this is Nova Scotia we’re talking about — Land of the Bigots. I have many friends from NS and why do you think they left NS?
the crustybastard
The beer bottle also speaks well of their professionalism.
CHIP1218
Halifax is a decade or two away from becoming Arab/Muslim controlled, which has turned the city into a more conservative location than what it was a generation ago. The last few trips I made there included a burning cross placed on an interracial couple’s front lawn, verbal abuse of gays leaving the main gay club by partying Arab men in the streets at 3am (police didn’t do a single thing), and women being manhandled by said Arab men and police again looking the other way. It seems to suck to be a women, black, or gay in Halifax nowadays, except during tourist season when everyone is on their best behavior to make as much money from the tourists and docked cruise ships….
harpy
what the hell?
There is no indication of race given in either in the queerty summary of the article or the CBC article. As for Halifax being Arab/Muslim controlled, Arabs occupy 1.04% of Halifax’s ethnic composition. Math isn’t a particularly strong subject of mine, but 1.04% does not a majority make.
Also the burning crosses incident that you just casually lopped in there, preceding your anti-arab diatribe, makes it seem as if the Arab community is in some way responsible for the incident. When the reality is that the two brothers, Nathan Neil Rehberg, 20, and Justin Chad Rehberg, 19, were responsible for the hate crime against an inter-racial couple.
Read more: http://www.cbc.ca/canada/nova-scotia/story/2010/03/01/ns-cross-burning-brothers-charges.html#ixzz12SE8KN9q
.) Nova Scotia has a history of violence and discrimination towards ethnic minorities (Africaville?)
.) It is one of the poorest provinces within Canada.
.) It has an enormous unemployment rate.
All these factors contribute to a society unsure of its position ergo polices its minorities in order to feel like it can exert some sort of influence over its affairs.
Your knee-jerk response at blaming a hot-button ethnic group however is just plain racist. I live in Toronto, where the population of ethnic cab drivers is enormous, and never have I ever experienced or heard of queer people being harassed to such an extent.
Go back to the provinces you hick.
Kev C
I don’t know about Canada but in the US, saying someone should be shot, and while passengers where in the cab, constitutes a crime.
Zach
@meego:
Fuck off. Every province has strongly conservative elements to it. Nova Scotia has a sorry history of dealing with its Black citizens, but we also never threw thousands of Japanese-Canadians into internment camps (British Columbia), or exiled most of our Aboriginal population to the most desolate places in the province (Manitoba and Saskatchewan), or tried to massacre an entire ethnic enclave (Vancouver, Toronto, Montreal). We didn’t toy with using the notwithstanding clause to prevent gay people from getting married (Alberta; and there is much more than that to say about Jesusland North). We aren’t about to elect a Palin-esque lunatic to mayoral office (Toronto). We don’t accord second-class status to our language minority (Quebec). We don’t have a disproportionate number of human rights complaints against other citizens (Ontario).
CHIP1218
@harpy:
Your statistics are a decade old. That 1-2% figure is from 2000-01. You are not factoring in the flight of white young adult Canadians from Halifax to other cities in Canada and other countries and other ethnic groups that have left Halifax for better economic opportunities over the past decade. The Arab population has developed an enclave in Halifax and is growing. Dalhousie University had to stop announcements of the LGBT group on the radio station due to the complaints of Arab students – doesn’t sound like a major university bows to pressure of 1% of the student body complaining – there must be more Muslims than LGBT on campus.
The burning cross was obviously nothing to do with Muslims or Arabs, it’s an example of the move to social conservatism that Halifax is experiencing. I was always told that Atlantic Canada was at the forefront of LGBT equality and gay marriage, but from my visits the past 2 years I would never have thought that. It’s getting more religious (Christian and Muslim) which is making it more conservative.
ait10101
I’ve always found Halifax to be pretty liberal, but maybe that is just me. A former lover of mine was beaten by the police (about 15 years ago — maybe that has changed) because he “was in the wrong place”.
It is a crime in Canada to advocate killing people. Steven Adams is just wrong. Hate speak is also a crime. Advocating killing people is about as hateful as it gets. The taxi driver should be in jail.
ewe
Bullshit. Anyone who is paying for a service anywhere should not be insulted. The customer should at the very least get a free ride and the taxi driver terminated. Don’t tell me anyone here thinks it would be ok for a bus driver to start calling you a faggot or cunt when you board the bus.
ewe
NY Subway : $2.25. Now get movin through that turnstile you nigger chinks. OH YEAH. LIKE THAT WOULD GO OVER WELL.
Ran
If this happened in any other business people would be suing. The reason why not, because employees are not suppose to offer their personal opinions and by doing so they can tarnish the reputation of the business and place it in harms way to lose revenue, be sued or boycotted. Basically, it’s bad for business. For most businesses one complaint is too many. It’s too bad they are so lax with what they feel is acceptable. It’s not the place of cab drivers or other service-people, just like many other professions, to offer their opinion or even speak. I say get the media involved, picket the companies, file a law suit and they might begin to change their ways.
Adam
I’d like to make a comment on behalf of DalOUT, the GLBTQ society at Dalhousie University. This is in response to the comment that Dalhousie University pulled radio announcements for our group, as a result of complaints from Arab students.
I am the Public Relations Manager at DalOUT and, with the exception of one ad in October of 2007, we do not advertise on the radio. We’ve never had complaints regarding radio ads because we do not *have* radio ads. Further, CKDU, the Dalhousie University radio station is a very open station and does not seem at all to be the type of station that would remove such ads because of complaints from Arab students.
I have checked with the president of my executive, as well as the previous president, and neither can recall any such complaints. If you have evidence to the contrary, then I would be more than happy to see it. But as far as I can tell, the statement is false.
As a resident of Halifax, I am of course, disheartened by the original story regarding Bob’s Taxi. However, during my years in Halifax, I have never experienced homophobia at the hands of Arab students. I have been called a faggot on more than one occasion and have heard other members of the local GLBTQ community called fags, but every time it has been from white male students with more money than brains.
Kurt
The Company should fire the driver. If not, the company should be boycotted. But I am agnostic as to if it is the government’s role to police this.
Brian Miller
This story is a complete lie. Canada is a land of unconditional liberal values, tolerance, compassion and love, unlike the brutish nation to the south that represents all things evil, hateful and despicable.
Molly
Well after reading the various comments, i realize my experience with Bob’s taxi was nothing out of the ordinary. I had horrible service/experience. i was sworn at and when i requested the receipt, it was thrown at me and i had to pick it up off the ground ! I could not believe that i had been treated this way. Actually never had i had a experience like this and i have taken many taxis. My original intention was to call up the company but after reading two reviews (see below), i thought it would be rather pointless. i can’t believe this company is still in business. I felt so strongly about this experience that i think others out there should know about it.
The driver was of Arab/middle eastern decent. Next time i will not be as naive to take any taxi that comes around.
PS the incident was not related to any gay/lesbian issue just lack of human decency.
————————————————
2 reviews for Bob’s Taxi
Search Reviews
Sort by: Yelp Sort | Date | Rating | Elites’ | Facebook Friends’
All Reviews
Review from Courtney M.
112friends
413reviews
Courtney M.
Halifax, NS
1/23/2010
This poor review isn’t so much for the speed/efficiency etc of this cab company but rather their total lack of awareness with regard to SHARING THE ROAD.
On several occasions now (3-4) I have had my elbows brushed or had to swerve towards the ditch (which you’ll notice currently consists of 2-3 feet of thick frozen ice at the moment in Halifax) in order to avoid a run in with one of Bob’s cabs. What’s the deal Bob?
So for those of you who bike, beware Bob’s taxi.
Was this review …?
Useful
Funny
Cool
Add owner comment Bookmark Send to a FriendLink to This Review
Review from Sara D.
————————————————-
0friends
1review
Sara D.
Halifax, NS
1/10/2011
I feel the need to express my outrage about how I was treated by Bob’s Taxi on Sunday January 9th by one of their dispatchers.
Upon waiting 20 minutes for my taxi, I called back to see how much longer I had to wait. When I asked dispatcher (who I will leave unnamed) how much longer I had to wait I was told that she “Could not just pull a time out of her ass” and that my cab would “Get there when it gets there. When I told her she need not be snarky about it, she replied with “Oh wait, did I hear you say to cancel your cab? I just want to make sure you want me to cancel you call, because I can do that you know”.
After being treated in such a manner by the staff at Bob’s, I proceeded to call the supervisor the next morning. When I called and told her of the appalling happenings of that day before, I was told by the supervisor “I do not believe you, our (insert dispatch name) would never act like that unprovoked” and proceeded to make several excuses for any “possible rudeness that may have occurred”. I was interrupted and talked over several times.
I am appalled and severely offended that I was outright told I was lying by the supervisor at Bob’s, not to mention the dispatchers miserable behavior on the day of the call. On top of all that I was told “You better not slander bobs taxi or life will get very hard for you”. She threatened me! The supervisor had the nerve to threaten me! I will not tolerate being
Hailey
Too many run ins with outright slimy perverts driving for Bob’s Taxi.
A woman has to carry a can of pepper spray and a big stick just to have a box brought intside her residence door. Never again will I trust, especially when they have previously hired pervs like you SL……Hope you rot in that prison for what you have done to NT and others. She tells me her story from the grave because I had walked in her shoes in July 2010, just before she vanished into thin air. I know what you did.
All that saved me that day, was pulling for all I was worth, getting my foot and arm jammed in that entrance door once I managed to fight your filthy hands off the lock several times. The hands you so adamantly held your smallness in after you dropped your pants to your knees in my kitchen and begged for sexual favours in exchange for my 20 dolar taxi fare.
I was too strong for you, you pathetic little pimp-attired wormball. It didn’t take you long to get your pants up when I made a bolt for the door. Couldn’t believe you locked it behind my back when you first entered the place. Sneaky, dirty pig.
I know who you are now, because I have seen your ugly, greasy, Napolian Bonepart face and your short, pathetic frame plastered in the newspapers, Rot in Hell you tiny-membered puke slug!
RIP NT. I know you never left the province and some day we will find you, because you talk through the experiences of others like me; others who were lucky enough to survive.
I hate you SL, for destroying my faith in all of Bob’s Taxi drivers and for ruining my day. Killer be gone!