Getting into a taxi is an apparently normal experience —however not for Kim Kilpatrick and her service dog Ginger while checking out Calgary from their home in Ottawa.
Kilpatrick said the cabby didn’t desire Ginger to get in his vehicle.
“She’s a yellow Labrador. She’s three and a half. And she’s my fifth guide dog,” Kilpatrick informed Global News. “She’s a great little dog. She’s a very serious, conscientious worker.”
Kilpatrick and Ginger remain in Calgary carrying out Raising Stanley/Life with Tulia, a program about guide dogs at Lunchbox Theatre. She’s a visually-impaired writer and special needs rights activist.
Read more:
Alberta woman filing human rights complaint after saying taxi denied ride to her and service dog
After an efficiency on Sunday, Kilpatrick bought a flight from Calgary United Cabs by means of an app — something she’s done previously without concern while checking out the city.
Stepping outdoors Calgary Tower, a sighted associate saw the taxi waited throughout the street, so Ginger assisted Kilpatrick throughout and her associate followed.
“As we got closer, (the driver) said, ‘No dogs in the car,’” Kilpatrick remembered. “And we both said, ‘This is illegal. You need to take the dog. This is a guide dog. This is a service dog.’
“He said, ‘You can put the dog in the trunk.’ We said, ‘No, absolutely not.’
“Then he said, ‘I don’t want any dog hair in my car.’”
She cancelled the taxi — a cancellation that later on revealed as “unable to find” Kilpatrick — and got another taxi. But she was confronted with more pushback from the dispatcher.
“The dispatcher told me I had to book a pet-friendly cab and not all drivers like dogs in their car,” Kilpatrick said.
“And I told him this is illegal, too. This is not right.”
Kilpatrick then called 311 to sign up a grievance into the city-regulated taxi market.
Proclaimed into law in 2009, Alberta’s Service Dogs Act preserves the rights of individuals with impairments who are accompanied by competent service dogs to get in any place where the public is permitted. There is comparable local and federal legislation preserving those rights.
Calgary United Cabs said Kilpatrick’s experience with their driver was “totally unfortunate” and the business has a no tolerance policy for these kinds of events.
“The company suspended the driver immediately after receiving the credible information and (City of Calgary’s Vehicle for Hire office) imposed a $700 fine on him,” a Calgary United Cabs representative said in a declaration.
“Although the Livery allowed him to drive, the company extended the suspension for additional 12 hours and directed him to redo the necessary training in the office.”
The taxi business said it sent a message to its whole fleet that declining a flight to service dogs would lead to termination.
“We wish to meet Ms. Kilpatrick directly and extend our management’s support and apologies to her.”
The city’s vehicle for hire workplace said there is “no excuse” for declining a guide dog.
“By not providing the service, you’re not following the Service Dogs Act and you are also potentially putting both the person and the service dog at risk, and nobody wants to see that,” a city representative said.
City laws state any business that doesn’t permit a service dog might deal with a fine of $1,000, and taxis might be struck with a $700 charge.
“We encourage anyone refused service to contact 311.”
Kilpatrick said Ginger provides her liberty to move the world securely, and is a partner in her life.
Sandra Cramer with the B.C. and Alberta Guide Dogs has actually seen how service dogs help make it possible for self-reliance.
“A lot of times these people are just not able to navigate without that dog. So if they’re ever denied access anywhere, it makes that whole process even harder,” Cramer informed Global News.
Kilpatrick, a previous para-swimmer and present blind rights supporter, kept a little humour around the event.
“It is a bit ironic that we’re doing a show about guide dogs and this happened, but I’m just glad that the city took it seriously.”
This isn’t the very first time such an event has actually occurred in Alberta just recently.
In late December, a female who utilizes a wheelchair and a service dog and was stranded outdoors Rogers Place in downtown Edmonton when the taxi business she booked never ever revealed.
Another female informed Global News she is filing a complaint with the Alberta Human Rights Commission versus a various taxi business, stating its drivers rejected numerous flights to her and her service dog in Leduc, Alta. in December too.
— With files from Phil Heidenreich, Global News
© 2023 Global News, a department of Corus Entertainment Inc.
