Windsor Uber driver gets 12-month sentence for sexual assault of passenger
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A Windsor Uber driver has been handed a 12-month sentence for sexually assaulting a lone female passenger, but the offender could also face the additional punishment of getting kicked out of Canada once he’s released from jail.
It was that threat of “potentially significant immigration consequences” — namely deportation — that had the defence urging a jail sentence of no more than six months less a day for Sevan Halabi.
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But Ontario Court Justice Scott Pratt sided with the Crown’s position of a 12-month sentence, even after noting that, as a permanent resident and not a Canadian citizen, Halabi faces an immigration status review and potential removal order for any criminal conviction in which he must serve six months or more.
“He knew the impact misconduct could have on him and his family when he assaulted the Victim,” Pratt said in his written reasons for judgment released April 3. “He now asks me to impose an unfit sentence so that his family does not suffer the consequences of his actions. I decline.”
The victim, a female teacher, called for an Uber on Oct. 9, 2022, to drive her home after a party. According to facts contained in Pratt’s judgment, rather than take her home, the driver of the ride-hailing service drove her instead to an empty parking lot.
“He told her they would have fun.” He parked and got into the back seat, forcibly kissing her, and then, ignoring her protests, “put his hand under her dress and touched her vaginal area over her underwear.”
He again tried to kiss her and when she did not respond, he moved away. “She asked if he would still drive her home and he said no,” leaving her alone in the parking lot.
In an impact statement the victim read out in court three years after the assault, she said she still suffers from panic attacks and flashbacks. She remains fearful and angry and the offence has negatively impacted her personal and professional life. “She didn’t know if she would be raped or killed, and that fear continues to impact her life,” said the judge, who told her “your spirit, which shines through in your words, will carry you through.”
The prosecution drew on previous related court decisions in recommending what it called a suitable punishment. In arriving at his sentence, the judge noted “it is troubling that sexual offences committed by professional drivers are sufficiently common that they have created their own body of caselaw.”
The judge acknowledged mitigating factors such as Halabi’s lack of a prior criminal record and strong family support. But a “very significant” aggravating factor was the breach of trust, and “when that trust is broken with criminal actions, courts must respond harshly.”
Justice Pratt described the “entire business model of Uber and similar companies” as one in which a customer contacts a stranger over the internet. Unlike a municipally licensed taxi driver, the judge said Halibi was “simply someone with a cell phone who offers rides to strangers.”
“We are told growing up never to get in the car with a stranger … it goes against everything we are taught and everything we teach about staying safe.” The vulnerability of the victim — “alone and largely defenceless” in vehicle controlled by the offender — made a message of denunciation and deterrence to him and others a priority in sentencing, the judge added.
Halibi came to Canada with his family in 2018, after having escaped “unrest and instability they experienced” in their home country of Iraq and initially fleeing to Jordan in 2016. His wife and children have since become Canadian citizens.
Convicted following a trial, Halibi told the court he regrets what happened, but the judge said that, based on what he told the author of a pre-sentence report, it was unclear whether that regret “stems from his actions or from the consequences he has brought on his family.”
In addition to the 12-month jail sentence, Halibi will be on probation for two years. The judge also placed Halibi on Canada’s Sex Offender Information Registry for 10 years; banned him from possessing any weapons for 10 years; and ordered him to provide a blood sample for a police DNA databank used to help solve crimes.
