Canadian cabbie suspended for kicking gay couple out of his taxi

A taxi driver in Calgary, Alberta, Canada was slapped a month-long suspension for insulting a gay couple and kicking them out of his cab, the Calgary Sun reported.

Local resident Nolan Hill got in a Calgary United cab with a friend on July 4, only to be threatened to be thrown from the cab when the driver saw the men kissing.

“He said, ‘No, you can’t do that in my cab’,” Hill told the paper. “He said, ‘No, I don’t want two men kissing in my cab — you can’t do that and if you do it again I will kick you out.’”

Hill said, “We eventually just paid, to get out of the cab. That was for me the most unsettling part — he just started to drive off.”

Hill shared his experience on social media and filed a complaint with local authorities.

After an investigation that included a review of surveillance video from the car, the driver – identified by the Calgary Herald as Stephen Eze – was suspended until August 5 due to “a complaint alleging discriminatory behaviour … toward two male passengers.”

“Calgarians and visitors alike should feel safe when traveling in Calgary by taxi,” said the city’s chief livery inspector, Mario Henriques, in a statement. “In this situation our investigation has shown the driver’s actions were neither professional nor courteous.”