After spending five hours at the Montreal Children\u2019s Hospital with her two-year-old son Xavier, a tired mom got onto the 108 Bannantyne bus to go back home to Verdun on July 22. She usually drives, so she didn\u2019t have OPUS cards and tried to use a $5 bill to pay the $3 fare.<\/p>\n
Unfortunately, Montreal buses do not have equipment that enables them to take bills\u2014only coins or OPUS cards.<\/p>\n
The bus driver followed company policy and refused the payment. It was late though\u201410:00 at night\u2014so he allowed the woman to stay on the bus without paying.<\/p>\n
Two inspectors got on the bus a little while later and gave the woman a $219 fine. She got off the bus crying and vowing to fight the ticket. The inspectors laughed and told her her efforts would only mean overtime for the agent who handled her complaint.<\/p>\n
Then they drove off in their car and left the twenty-four year old women with her child in her arms on a dark street corner in Verdun.<\/p>\n
She walked home without further incident, but she was scared and angry.<\/p>\n
Pauline Tantost\u2019s story made headlines. The bus driver got hassled. Even his union argued that employees should have the right to issue compassion tickets in such cases.<\/p>\n
Embarrassed, the STM revoked their fine in this case, but it remains active in others. The 2013 budget doesn\u2019t specify how much revenue such fines give to the STM, so it\u2019s hard to tell how much the agency benefits from a lack of compassion.<\/p>\n
Management hasn\u2019t yet fixed the problem either. Bus drivers still don\u2019t get to give out compassion tickets when they want. The fare boxes on buses still don\u2019t accept bills, interact cards or credit cards.<\/p>\n
The STM refused to apologize to Tantost, but she\u2019s relieved they didn\u2019t make her pay the fine.<\/p>\n
She hasn\u2019t taken the bus since.<\/p>\n
Note: This article appeared on page 8 of the Suburban’s January 1 retrospective issue.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
After spending five hours at the Montreal Children\u2019s Hospital with her two-year-old son Xavier, a tired mom got onto the 108 Bannantyne bus to go back home to Verdun on July 22. She usually drives, so she didn\u2019t have OPUS cards and tried to use a $5 bill to pay the $3 fare. Unfortunately, Montreal […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_wp_convertkit_post_meta":{"form":"-1","landing_page":"0","tag":"0","restrict_content":"0"},"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_hide_featured_image":false,"_jetpack_featured_image_duplicate_dismissed":0,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[21],"tags":[95,94],"class_list":["post-3205","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-island-report","tag-compassion","tag-stm","post-wrapper","thrv_wrapper"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2buQs-PH","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":2999,"url":"https:\/\/traceyarial.com\/blog\/en\/jency-mercier\/","url_meta":{"origin":3205,"position":0},"title":"Verdun Candidate for Mayor: Jency Mercier","author":"Tracey Arial","date":"October 18, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Association: Int\u00e9grit\u00e9 Montr\u00e9al \u00a0- \u00c9quipe Michel Br\u00fbl\u00e9\u00a0,\u00a0https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/integritemontreal Jency Mercier has been an STM bus driver for six years, and is working on a bachelors of arts in communications and public relations at UQAM. She supports Michel Brul\u00e9\u2019s calls for accountability, secularism in public spaces and lowering the number of Montreal\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Verdun"","block_context":{"text":"Verdun","link":"https:\/\/traceyarial.com\/blog\/en\/category\/canada\/verdunposts\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3132,"url":"https:\/\/traceyarial.com\/blog\/en\/champlain_bridge\/","url_meta":{"origin":3205,"position":1},"title":"Commuters Advised to Avoid Champlain Bridge","author":"Tracey Arial","date":"November 21, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"The Champlain Bridge will be limited to two lanes in each direction until sometime in mid-December. Plans call for the cracked girder to be temporarily supported by a major beam in a two-day construction operation. The bridge will remain open during that operation, but only in a single lane each\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Island Report"","block_context":{"text":"Island Report","link":"https:\/\/traceyarial.com\/blog\/en\/category\/canada\/island-report\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"View of the Nun's Island Bridge from the Ice Bridge","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/traceyarial.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/Icebridge-150x112.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1522,"url":"https:\/\/traceyarial.com\/blog\/en\/montreal-new\/","url_meta":{"origin":3205,"position":2},"title":"Latest Montreal News","author":"Tracey Arial","date":"October 27, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Island ReportMontreal, island, nature, business, poltics, housing, Quebec, Canada, Metro, Transportation, City Hall, politics, stm, news, cbc, community, park, real estate, land, justice, jobsView \"Island Report\" on Spundge","rel":"","context":"In "Island Report"","block_context":{"text":"Island Report","link":"https:\/\/traceyarial.com\/blog\/en\/category\/canada\/island-report\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3039,"url":"https:\/\/traceyarial.com\/blog\/en\/montreal-mayor-press-overview\/","url_meta":{"origin":3205,"position":3},"title":"Montreal Mayor: Press Overview","author":"Tracey Arial","date":"October 28, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"There are lots of articles about the upcoming election that are worth reading whether or not you agree with the stance of the people writing them. They include: Cult Montreal Want a bit of a laugh? Check out Cult Montreal's best graffiti on\u00a0Montreal mayor candidate\u00a0campaign posters at\u00a0http:\/\/cultmontreal.com\/2013\/10\/montreal-mayoral-campaign-posters\/ Globe and Mail\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Journalism"","block_context":{"text":"Journalism","link":"https:\/\/traceyarial.com\/blog\/en\/category\/writing\/notable-nonfiction\/journalism\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1816,"url":"https:\/\/traceyarial.com\/blog\/en\/one-way-car-sharing\/","url_meta":{"origin":3205,"position":4},"title":"One-way car-sharing pilot project underway in Plateau","author":"Tracey Arial","date":"July 18, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Two weeks ago, on June 28, Communauto* launched a one-way electric car-sharing pilot project in Plateau Mont Royal . That project will run until November. The organization decided to launch the project after participating in a Montreal-led public consultation about one-way car-sharing in the city on June 11.\u00a0It was held\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Journalism"","block_context":{"text":"Journalism","link":"https:\/\/traceyarial.com\/blog\/en\/category\/writing\/notable-nonfiction\/journalism\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1348,"url":"https:\/\/traceyarial.com\/blog\/en\/basement-apartment-surve\/","url_meta":{"origin":3205,"position":5},"title":"Was LaSalle owner taxed twice during basement survey?","author":"Tracey Arial","date":"January 13, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"The LaSalle property owner who complained about being charged for a non-existent apartment last month now believes he was double-billed him for water and garbage as well. Ioan Ruxanda now wants his money back, but so far no one from Montreal\u2019s tax department has returned his calls. Patricia Lowe, an\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "LaSalle"","block_context":{"text":"LaSalle","link":"https:\/\/traceyarial.com\/blog\/en\/category\/canada\/lasalleposts\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/traceyarial.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3205","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/traceyarial.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/traceyarial.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/traceyarial.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/traceyarial.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3205"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/traceyarial.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3205\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3206,"href":"https:\/\/traceyarial.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3205\/revisions\/3206"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/traceyarial.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3205"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/traceyarial.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3205"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/traceyarial.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3205"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}