Discrimination against Handicapped in Wheelchairs

Hey you.. you in the wheelchair... Get Lost

http://www.canada.com/montrealgazette/index.html

Cabbie on Handicapped Crusade

Disabled Shunned, forced to wait longer for taxis, Veteran says

Crusader cabbie Arieh Perecowicz is going to bat for handicapped customers (including the one in wheelchairs) he claims are shunned by: insensitive taxi-drivers, insensitive Bureau de Taxi, and insensitive Diamond-Taxi Association of Montreal.

Perecowicz launched a one man battled within the taxi-industry around 1997-1998 to fight what he says is blatant discrimination against the disabled.

He is only asking the industry to do a humane thing:
That, all dispatched-calls (at Diamond/Veteran Taxi dispatched center) be dispatched as regular calls, regardless of their special needs.

Arieh Perecowicz, a Veteran taxi behind the wheel of a cab, accuses colleagues of refusing fares when they are told by dispatch-center that the client is handicapped.

A cabbie will take 70 pounds of a suitcase from a customer, at the airport, but not a 17 ounce walker.

As a result; disabled callers are sometimes forced to wait up to a half an hour longer than regular customers, for a taxi.

He says refusing fares (the disabled) breaches both the company’s (Diamond/Veteran) internal regulations and a bylaw under the Montreal Urban Community’s taxi Bureau (The Bureau de Taxi).

Perecowicz has lodged official complaints with the Bureau de taxi, Diamond/Veteran Management, and the Provincial agency, for handicapped people.

ONLY AFTER Perecowicz had gone PUBLIC to the MEDIA (The Montreal Gazette & TV-News), the matter has been resolved by The Bureau de Taxi director Richard Boyer & by Diamond/Veteran Taxi Association CEO-President Dominic Roy.
All parties been advised to accommodate customers with special-needs.

Dispatchers were giving drivers the option to refuse handicapped customers, Perecowicz said.
A sample of such a call being dispatched was, as follows:
“Triple five, do you take a wheelchair?”
Perecowicz, cab number being 555, requested the dispatcher to repeat the call. After realizing the error, the dispatcher then apologized, saying: “Sorry, I’m not supposed to do that.”

The Quebec Human-Rights Commission REFUSED to open a file because it does NOT accept third-party complaints.

Claire Chenard of the Office des Personnes Handicapées du Québec, whom Perecowicz said he contacted recently, could not be reached for comments.

“There are lots of empty promises; they are hoping it will just blow away.”

Story was publish in the Montreal-Gazette, Tuesday, July 10, 2001 on page: ‘A3’ http://www.canada.com/montrealgazette/index.html



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