Taxi sex assault lawsuit to move forward

The Quebec Transport Commission will have to defend itself in a $250,000 sexual assault case that began when a woman complained of being sexually assault by a taxi driver in the old Port last September.

On Monday a judge quashed the agency’s attempt to excuse itself from the lawsuit, which also targets the city of Montreal and the city’s taxi bureau.

Marie-Anne Legault is suing for a total of $250,000 after being allegedly sexually assaulted by a cab driver in the Old Port on September 18, 2014.

Her lawyer Leslie-Anne Wood told CTV Montreal that standard checks and balances were not conducted to prevent such attacks and that all levels of bureaucracy bear responsibility.

"These defendants had a role to play in this. The law provides that criminal background checks must be conducted on all drivers and they were not being done, so that’s an example of where they had a duty to act and enforce the law and make the verification required to ensure that it’s a safe service,” said Wood.

“There were a lot of these alleged assaults and in response to this we’d expect these institutions to do something to correct this problem and protect the population,” said Wood.