Tom Bregg's life as a bus driver came to an end two years ago after a vicious beating from one of his passengers. Now, he hopes a proposed law named after him will help keep other drivers from suffering his fate.
Edmonton-St. Albert member of Parliament Brent Rathgeber tabled Bill C-637 in the House of Commons last week. The bill, dubbed 'Bregg's Bill' after Bregg, who is from St. Albert, would require judges to consider stiffer sentences in assault cases if the victim was operating a public transit vehicle.
There are about 2,000 assaults on public transit drivers a year in Canada, says Rathgeber, speaking at a press conference Monday at the St. Albert Inn & Suites, a number that has risen sharply over the last decade.
Transit workers desperately need this kind of legal protection, Rathgeber says. "When a public transit operator's safety is threatened, so too is the safety of every passenger on the public transit vehicle, not to mention those in the vicinity of the vehicle."
Bregg, who is now blind in his left eye and can no longer drive a bus, says he hopes the bill, if it becomes law, would discourage people from attacking bus drivers. "It's too late for me now, but it does protect my former co-workers for a long time to come."
Transit terror
Bregg was hospitalized for many weeks after a passenger dragged him from his Edmonton Transit bus, punched him repeatedly, and stomped on his face multiple times. Gary Edwin Mattson has since pleaded guilty to that aggravated assault and is now undergoing a dangerous offender hearing that could see him put behind bars indefinitely.
It was the first time in his 33-year career that Bregg says he'd been physically assaulted while on the job, although he had been verbally abused before. "That's part of the job," he says of the latter. "It's never been a big issue for me."
He says he doesn't remember anything about the attack and doesn't care to look it up. "It was a dark period in my life and I've put it behind me."
Stu Litwinowich, president of the Amalgamated Transit Union Local 569, which includes Edmonton and St. Albert transit workers, says he gets calls about bus driver abuse every week. "We need this added protection."
This bill is just one piece of the puzzle when it comes to protecting drivers, says Bob McDonald, director of St. Albert Transit. Edmonton is looking into sliding shields for its buses, he notes, while St. Albert plans to put cameras in its vehicles to film assaults and accidents.
Needs work, says lawyer
The bill has a lot of support from Conservatives, Rathgeber says, and he has not heard any significant opposition to it from the other parties. "Some individuals in my caucus think it doesn't go far enough."
Assuming the government survives next week's budget vote, he hopes the bill will be up for debate this spring.
The bill has good intentions, says St. Albert criminal defence lawyer Rory Ziv, but wouldn't do much to protect drivers. "I think it's superfluous," he says, as the courts already consider harsher sentences in assaults on transit workers because of legal precedent. "This is practically going to add very little to the legal landscape."
The bill is likely to die on the order paper, Rathgeber says, as the government would have to last well into next year before the bill would become law. The bill has done its job in drawing attention to bus driver safety regardless, he adds, and he could always re-table it later.
Bregg, who describes himself as a low-profile kind of guy, says it's humbling to have a proposed law named after him. "But I'd rather [the assault] didn't happen in the first place."
