Cabbies back in court for airport protest challenge

Judge expected to rule Wednesday on limits to noisemakers, drums

An Ottawa court judge was expected to rule Wednesday on a taxi union’s request to ease restrictions on its members’ protesting activities on airport property.

Lawyers for the union representing Airport Taxi drivers appeared in Justice Robert Beaudoin’s court Tuesday to challenge parts of an Aug. 14 injunction that limits the drivers’ protests on airport property.

Cab drivers had used steel drums, cymbals, car horns and other noisemakers while marching in front of the arrivals area early in its demonstration. The injunction halted the noise.

The drivers, members of Unifor Local 1688, have been locked in a labour dispute since early August. They have been picketing the airport, slowing traffic along the Airport Parkway, and mounting protests in hopes of overturning a new contract between the Ottawa Airport Authority and dispatcher Coventry Connections, which has removed the drivers’ exclusive right to pick up fares at the airport and increased the fees they must pay to do so.

Harry Ghadban, the area director for Unifor, told court that making noise, and in particular banging large drums outside the airport’s arrivals area, is a key piece of the cab drivers’ protest that allowed them to get their message across to the public. The drivers argued they should be allowed to resume using noisemakers, including drums, outside the arrivals area.

Ghadban testified that despite the airport’s claims the devices were too loud, disrupt communications, and could affect the hearing of airport workers, he has received no proof from airport officials that the drums are an issue.

He admitted that drivers banging the drums wore earplugs so they wouldn’t suffer ear damage. He added that should the noisemakers pose a public safety issue, the drivers would be willing to cease using them. He also said the drivers stopped when children were present.

Ghadban also acknowledged that at no point has the airport stopped the drivers from yelling and chanting outside the arrivals area. But the union isn’t happy with the attention the lower-volume approach has yielded.

“We are communicating our message, so people can see us and hear us,” Ghadban said.

“Certainly, whatever we are doing is displaying displeasure for what the airport has done and what Coventry Connections has done to our drivers.”

Militant union members have been ordered away from the arrivals area to a dedicated portion of the Airport Parkway, about a kilometre from the airport, where they have set up camp, complete with a rental van that acts as their base of operations.

The lengthy dispute has taken it toll on the union members. Some of the protest activities the union is allowed to carry out, including the distribution of leaflets, and rolling blockades, have dwindled significantly.

For its part, the Ottawa International Airport issued a statement on Tuesday simply repeating the timeline of the protests and the injunction and what the union was asking of the court.

Beaudoin said he would present his decision on the injunction challenge Wednesday.