THUNDER BAY - City transit workers took a moment out of their day to pause on their routes and remember a fellow driver who was the victim of a violent attack in Winnipeg.
On Tuesday, transit workers across the city held a moment of silence at 2 p.m. to remember Irvine Fraser, the 58-year-old Winnipeg bus driver who was killed by a passenger on Feb. 14.
“We’re an international union and it’s like we’re one big family,” said Todd Little, vice president of Amalgamated Transit Union 966. “When we heard of the murder it sent shockwaves throughout our family. We all wanted to support one another and have this little memorial for him.”
Little said transit workers in the city do not necessarily feel less safe on the job following the incident in Winnipeg, but there are renewed calls to revisit safety procedures.
“We talked about having the same features as a cockpit on an airplane or a train,” Little said. “But in saying that, we have to have an access door to get out the other side as well.”
Little added he would like to see the government adhere to Bill S-221, which is meant to make assaults on public transit operators an aggravating circumstance for the purpose of sentencing.
“Stop plea bargaining these people who do commit these assaults and not negotiate and let them out earlier,” he said. “Prosecute them to the full extent of the law.”
When Little first learned of the assault in Winnipeg that left a driver dead, he said he couldn’t believe it. But he added five assaults against transit workers occur every day in Canada, and those are only the ones that are reported.
“We have incidents here that are not too serious,” he said. “There’s the occasional spit, profanity, and recently someone got head butted. It’s not good. We all want to come home at the end of the day after we do our hard day’s work and we want to feel good and not have to deal with stuff like this.”
