Ottawa Police are investigating an overnight attack on three blue line cabs. The windows of the taxis were smashed and some of their tires slashed.
The head of Blueline believes the crime may be connected to the heightened tension at the Ottawa airport.
Airport taxi drivers continued their protest today along the Airport Parkway, angry at being locked out. But they say that protest does not include criminal activity. Others, though, are not so sure.
Outside his Barrhaven home, Amrinder Dhaliwal surveys the damage to his cab. He was shocked to see what happened to his Blueline cab overnight.
‘When I wake up this morning,’ he says, ‘and saw the car, they broke all glasses on the car and put a knife in the tires. All four tires are flat now.’
And it wasn't only his car. His neighbor, who also drives a Blueline cab had his windows smashed as well.
In South Keys, a third Blueline cab was vandalized.
Barrhaven driver Varun Walia is convinced he knows who did it.
‘It’s definitely by the airport drivers because we are picking drivers from airport and that's why they are targeting all the cabs.’
Tensions have risen in the month-old dispute between airport taxi drivers and Coventry Connections that owns Blueline. Drivers at the airport are protesting an increase in airport pick up fees and confronting cab drivers who they believe are stealing their work. But they say vandalism is not part of their protest.
‘I would suspect other people,’ says Airport Taxi driver Goda Khashan, ‘Maybe Coventry, or Uber or the driver himself. I don’t know but not one of us for sure.’
The President of Coventry Connections says it is shameful someone is committing this criminal activity and says it's giving the whole taxi industry a bad name.
‘I’ve lived in Ottawa for 15 years,’ says Hanif Patni, ‘and in the last 15 years, I've not seen this type of vandalism and we know part of the reason is the heightened tension caused at the airport at the moment.’
The taxi cab drivers say damage to their vehicles will cost them thousands of dollars and days off work, which may have been what someone wanted.
Ottawa Police are investigating.
