(Update) An interesting situation from Lunenburg as posted by SaltWind Transportation

Updated - A response has been issued from the Town of Lunenburg, included below. An interesting situation from Lunenburg as posted by SaltWind Transportation. "Mayor of the Town of Lunenburg Permanently Banned from SaltWind Due to Safety Incident On Friday of this past weekend our business experienced a serious safety issue while attempting to pick up the town’s mayor Jamie Myra which resulting in emergency services being called. As such Mr. Myra, his family and several other members of his group have been permanently banned from SaltWind Transportation Services. Late Friday evening I received multiple calls from Mr. Myra requesting last minute service for him and several other people he was drinking with. I explained that as we were fully booked until 2:00 am we would not be able to accommodate his request. After several additional calls from the mayor I found a pocket of time to provide a cross town trip for him. Upon waiting at his pickup location for several minutes, Mr. Myra entered the car along with several of his family members and friends. Mr. Myra and his party were heavily intoxicated, and his party contained more people than our Kia Seltos could hold. It was at this time that Mr. Myra chucked a $50 bill at me, while a discussion went on with his party about putting more people in the car than there were seatbelts. His trip would normally be a $7 fare. I explained that we could not put additional passengers in the car and that I would not be able to accommodate multiple cross town trips at this point as there was a large group of tourists who were left outside of the Knot Pub (which was now closed) and who had booked service between Lunenburg and Kingsburg. I also indicated that it wouldn’t look good for my business offering preferential treatment to the Mayor while guests of our tourist community were stranded. He continued to insist and argue with me about the situation. It was at this point one of the members of his party got out of the vehicle and proceeded to stand by the driver side window which was down in order to keep the car from being overpowered by the smell of alcohol. This individual then proceeded to berate me for becoming frustrated with the situation as “You’re a taxi driver - what do you expect when you’re picking up drunk people at 2:00 in the morning”. Due to her tone, level of intoxication and aggressive stance I let her know that I would be refusing her service that evening. She then proceeded to escalate until she was screaming and yelling derogatory slurs at me. Given the behaviour of Mr. Myra and his guests I made the determination that it would no longer be safe to continue with the trip and informed Mayor Myra that he needed to vacate the car. Mr. Myra refused. After three more rounds of requesting that Mr. Myra remove himself from my vehicle, and three more refusals, I decided that I needed to leave the car due to the escalating nature of the event. After exiting the vehicle, several members of Jamie’s family, including his future son-in-law came barrelling out of the house where they had been drinking. His future son-in-law was held back as he made several threats of violence towards me. Mr. Myra was still in my vehicle at this point. I gave the mayor one final warning that if he did not leave the vehicle I would call 911. He did not leave until the 911 call came over the car speakers and his wife physically removed him from the vehicle. I left the scene and went to pickup the tourists who had been waiting. After speaking with police I felt that the event was finish. I had no appetite or desire to take any further action. Over the next hour Mr. Myra attempted to contact me via the business phone number and left several messages. The next day I received a call from the mayor apologizing for the incident. During the call he indicated that members of his group were “assholes” but since he “didn’t open his mouth” he had done nothing wrong. He warned me that although he does not engage on social media, members of his family and his friends do and that they would likely come after me and my business if anything was made public. Additionally, he suggested that he would like to continue to work with me to bring a transit system to the town, that he would be willing to work with me on anything related to my business and that he would like to sit down next week for a coffee to discuss the future of SaltWind including possible changes to by-laws. I stated that I needed to decide what course of action I would be taking. I took the call to be both a threat and a quid-pro-quo in order to obtain my silence. Over the next few hours two members of his group called to apologize for their behaviour, while suggesting that they were so drunk that they didn’t really know what happened. Mr. Myra again contacted me asking if the situation was settled. When I told him I still needed to take this back to my team he threatened me with a defamation lawsuit. This is fundamentally unacceptable behaviour from an elected official that stands to completely disrupt and damage a private local business within its first few months of operations. I am more than happy to engage in any formal complaint process that the Town of Lunenburg has but my understanding is that due to changes enacted by the provincial government, non-council members are unable to bring forward Code of Conduct complaints. SaltWind will also be making the following temporary service adjustments until safety protocols can be reviewed and dash cams installed: 1. We will be ending taxi service at 10:00 PM Monday to Sunday which includes removing Friday and Saturday late night service. 2. Our vehicle doors will always remain locked after 8:00 PM. As such, you will need to confirm your ride with the driver via the passenger side window before entering the vehicle. 3. Any threats of violence, derogatory comments, and requests to circumvent transportation laws (ei passenger overloads, open alcohol, movement of drugs, or the trafficking of people) will immediately result in refusal of service and a temporary/permanent ban from our services. If you have any questions about these service changes please feel free to reach out to us. We’re sorry that things have come to this point but as a business we cannot allow this kind of behaviour stand." - **** Via the Town of Lunenburg Statement from the Town of Lunenburg The Town of Lunenburg is aware of an incident this past weekend involving Mayor Jamie Myra. The Town is investigating the allegations made on Facebook and has no further comment at this time. We appreciate the public's understanding and respect for the process. Thank you