A Vancouver man who touched a female bus driver’s upper thigh for a few seconds has been found guilty of assault.
Vancouver Provincial Court’s Judge Wilson Lee said it didn’t matter how long Surjit Singh Toor had touched the woman for. Transit workers’ protection should be of utmost importance, she said in a hearing this month.
“Mr. Toor’s contact with [the driver] was not a mere trifle or of a minor nature,” he said. “In my opinion … [the driver] is entitled to the protection of the law.”
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The incident happened in 2018, when Toor boarded the bus at Main and Hastings. He appeared intoxicated and first touched the driver’s shoulder. She then told him not to touch her.
Toor tried approaching her again, and the driver told him to sit down. That’s when he put his hand on her thigh for “two to three seconds,” she said.
The driver yelled at Toor and ordered him to sit back down. She then stopped the bus at Kingsway and Victoria Drive and called for help.
Defence Says Bus Driver Assault Was “Minor”
Toor’s defence said any contact between the two was “so minor and trivial,” that he shouldn’t be charged.
Lee however said the driver was in a vulnerable spot and would have had a hard time defending herself, if needed.
“I attribute this to the vulnerability that transit operators have during the course of their employment duties, and their interaction with an assortment of bus passengers,” Lee said in the ruling.
Bus drivers facing abuse from passengers is not a one-off. Drivers have been verbally-abused. They’ve been spat on. And this, along with other things like breaks and wages, were just some of the issues raised during the strike.
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