OC Transpo Does It Again

With regards to the incident between an OC Transpo bus driver and Matthew Taronno, I cannot help but feel that the union will try to sweep this under the rug. With the stuff that has come from the union it just seems like they will be covering for one of their own. They tried to pull the “a driver cannot be filmed on OC Transpo property,” but that just made it seem to clear in what was going to happen. Then came the “It will be dealt with internally and cannot be revealed to the public.” Which, granted, is better than the first one but people should be able to read between those lines as well.

True, there are good and bad bus drivers out there in almost every major city. But this incident seems to have gone over the top. Threatening a passenger with physical harm is not okay and shouldn't be tolerated. Plain and simple, this act that was caught on film is a form of bullying. The bus driver belittles Matthew and threatens him. If this had happened in a school, one would be calling for some kind of justice and not be swept aside. With the latest news about bullying going around and of the outcomes that come from that people should be thinking about what they say before they speak. I know, easier said than done but it seems that it needs to be said again because some people just don't get it.

I can't see ANY reasonable explanation that would put the bus driver in the “right” here. If said bus driver felt so strongly about what had happened that he “spoke up” and threatened Matthew then why didn't he just call for the OC officers to come and help with the situation. There has to be some sort of protocol for situations where other OC Transpo staff that are trained to deal with these issues have to be called. But the bus driver decided that he would take matters into his own hands. And the union is now saying that the whole thing could be related to stress or other problems. I'm sorry and I'm on the page with the others that have said this as well, but if you can't control yourself while doing a job that serves the public than you shouldn't be doing that job.

The fact is that Matthew Taronno stood up and took responsibility for what he did, on the bus and in the media. The bus driver, well it seems like he gets to continue on with his job as if nothing had happened on that bus that day.

Submitted to: The Ottawa Citizen