Liz’s story: “At first, it’s kind of a friendly hand patting my back, but it soon crossed the line into full-on groping.”

It was around 1:30am on a Thursday night and I was downtown on Bishop Street. While I usually like to walk home, I knew the downtown was going to be filled with drunken partiers so I thought: why not play it safe and take a cab, right?

Wrong.

There was a cab right outside the bar I was at (Grumpy’s) so I jumped in the backseat and gave the cabbie my address. He was super friendly and, after learning that I’m anglophone, fairly new to the city, and trying to learn French, he said “come sit in the front with me, I’ll speak to you in French, you can answer me back in English.” I thought, “hey, why not?”

So, under the pretense of friendliness, we start chatting, except that every time he makes a joke or laughs (because suddenly everything I say is hilarious) he starts putting his arm around me. At first, it’s kind of a friendly hand patting my back, but it soon crossed the line into full-on groping.

I have a feeling that this guy has done this kind of thing before. He was very manipulative. By the time I could make sense of what was happening, we were basically at my house and my body had gone into “just try to endure this and try to get out of this moving vehicle as safely as possible” mode.

Be on the lookout for a [identity signifiers removed - see our anti-discrimination policy] cab driver who is extremely friendly. If he invites you into the front seat, do not go! Just get out of the car. And, if you have the presence of mind to get a license plate number, please report him.

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