A Nigerian man living and working in Calgary,
Stephen Eze, has faced sanctions for insulting
two passengers who were kissing in his cab.
According to one of the lovers, Nolan Hill, he
and his partner were at Nashville North but
decided to leave Stampede Grounds around 11
p.m. They headed to the city's northwest in a
Calgary United Cab. Although Nolan and his
partner talked throughout the ride, an
altercation arose when he gave his boyfriend
what he called "very simple peck on the
mouth".
The cab driver, Stephen Eze was said to have
been upset and disgusted.
Hill said: The cab driver said, 'No, you can't do
that in my cab.' And my friend said, 'Excuse
me?' "He said, 'No, two men cannot be kissing
in my cab. It's disgusting.' He said if we did it
again, he would kick us out of the cab."
However, instead of their original agreed
destination, the partners who were upset about
the cabbie's attitude towards them, decided to
alight at the next bus stop. Hill said when his
boyfriend told the driver they wouldn't pay
because of what happened, Eze started to
drive away instead of allowing them alight.
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"He refused to let us out without paying, which
was the scariest part. So I said, 'We'll pay. We
paid. We got out of the cab, and went to find
a different cab. The driver got out and was
yelling at the next driver we were approaching
that 'these men were kissing, " said Hill.
Nolan Hill
Hill reported the incident to 311 and turned to
social media with a Facebook post that read:
"I was just kicked out of a taxi and told that I
was disgusting for kissing another man. I have
lived in Calgary my whole life, and have never
been disrespected as much as I was tonight."
CbcNews has however reported that on
Tuesday afternoon, Naeem Chaudhry, the
manager at Calgary United Cabs, announced
that the licensed taxi driver Stephen Eze has
been suspended until August 5.
"He's not driving with us," he said. "We don't
allow (our drivers) to make comments on
someone's personal lifestyle."
Once the suspension has been served, the
future of Eze's licence will be determined at a
Licence Review Hearing. It's possible Eze's
licence could ultimately be revoked, or he
could receive additional suspension time or
training related to diversity sensitivity. It's
also unknown whether United Cabs will allow
Eze to return to driving with the company
following the Licence Review Hearing.
When the same sex law was made official in
the US a few weeks ago, it caused outrage in
more conservative parts of the world.
The Zimbabwean president, Robert Mugabe, in
criticism of the law and to prove a point,
asked for President Barrack Obama's hand in
marriage.
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