Bruce Gilmour’s guide dog wasn’t allowed in cab
Jessica Smith/Metro Vancouver
Bruce Gilmour and his new guide dog, Aurora, enjoy the sun outside Gilmour’s home in Kerrisdale yesterday.
A blind Vancouver man was awarded $2,500 in a settlement with North Shore Taxi after a driver wouldn’t allow his guide dog in the car.
Bruce Gilmour said he was later told the driver is Muslim and his beliefs prevent him from associating with dogs, which are considered unclean.
Gilmour was returning from Whistler last January, when a coffee shop server in West Vancouver called him a taxi for the last leg of his trip.
When the driver refused to take him and his golden retriever, Arden, Gilmour thought, “not again,” he said.
“I want reliability. Why do I have to roll the dice every time I call a cab?”
Other drivers have refused him rides eight times since then, he added.
Gilmour then filed a complaint with the B.C. human rights tribunal, but reached a settlement with North Shore Taxi before a decision was made.
The settlement includes a policy that any driver whose religion precludes them from carrying dogs will call another driver and wait with the passenger until the next car arrives.
Gilmour hopes other taxi companies will implement similar policies.
