Airport Taxi drivers lose bid to amp up airport protest

An Ottawa judge upheld on Wednesday an earlier injunction imposed on drivers of Airport Taxi-branded cabs, prohibiting them from playing drums or using noisemakers anywhere near Ottawa International Airport.

Judge Robert Beaudoin, who heard arguments about the case on Tuesday, had hash words for the drivers after a cross-examination of Harry Ghadban, the area director for Unifor, yielded shaky testimony that undermined the union’s attempt to ramp up the drivers’ ongoing protest.

“Unifor provided the affidavit of Harry Ghadban, its Eastern Ontario director. He was crossexamined on that affidavit and he admitted that the statements he made ... were not truthful,” reads Beaudoin’s decision. “This admission seriously undermines the credibility of his other statements.”

Lawyers for the union representing more than 200 Airport Taxi drivers had appeared in court Tuesday to challenge parts of an Aug. 14 injunction that limits the drivers’ protests on airport property. 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 at 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.

The lengthy dispute has taken its 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.

The union had hoped that by having the clause in the injunction overturned it could ramp up the spirits of its members by allowing them to drum, pound and make noise outside the terminal once again.

With the testimony of Ghadban, who claimed that the union had been using a noise meter to monitor the loudness of demonstrations, being thrown out, there was little to counteract the airport’s points that excessive noise and a rowdy crowd could hamper emergency procedures and crews should they be needed.

Beaudoin sided with the airport, saying that not only would he uphold the ban on excessive noise, but he was ordering the drivers away from the arrival’s area entirely.

“Unifor and its members, officers, and supporters will not make noise on the Airport premises using drums or improvised percussive devices or any other instruments or any noise amplification devices,” the judge wrote in his ruling. “In my view, the only practical and enforceable solution would be to relocate the protesters to the grassy area immediately in front of the parkade building. Unifor’s requests to be relocated to the centre portion of the median presents too many risks given the history of this dispute.”

Abed Madi, head of the Airport Taxi drivers’ unit, declined to comment on the judge’s decision.