Driven: The Secret Lives of Taxi Drivers
by Marcello Di Cintio
Biblioasis (2021)

Marcello Di Cintio writes of so many
immigrant taxi drivers who had seen war and
prejudice; yet, he never judges. “I spoke to many drivers who had watched their countries destroyed and just wanted to survive . . . I doubt there’s an armed conflict anywhere in the world unrepresented by a Canadian taxi driver” (19). He focuses on the competition between Taxi Drivers and Uber drivers. In Chapter Four, The Ballad of the Taxi Sheriff, he writes of the gritty “Lebanese cowboys”. And celebrated fiction writer, Rawi Hage, once drove taxi. His story is told in Chapter 11/The Immigrant Who Made It.

The Long Journey of Nathan Phelps is one of the most poignant chapters in this book, and I might add, very comprehensive. Di Cintio writes, “I’d not spoken to a taxi driver with a more complicated relationship to his family than Nate Phelps, and none who was as philosophical about his border crossings” (226).

Di Cintio captures the moral substance of those drivers who take us to our requested destinations, and explores some special drivers who are cognizant of the dangers to their passengers. He writes of Jass, a female taxi driver in Calgary who emigrated from India. When a driver pulled his cab in front of hers at a hotel queue, Jass got out and stuck a finger in his face. “I did not come to Calgary to watch the Stampede,” she said. “I am here to work. You think I am a female so I am shy? So I don’t want to speak up? No. I am not that kind. My nation, my culture, my religion has very strong women. So you respect me, and I will respect you” (82).

“The Women of Ikwe” is a fascinating chapter that features “Ikwe Safe Rides, a non-profit ride-share that matches female volunteer drivers with women needing a ride. Ikwe, which means “woman” in Ojibwe, is intended to give Winnipeg’s women, especially Indigenous women, an alternative to frightening taxi rides. If cabbies were the villains in Winnipeg, the women of Ikwe were the heroes” (137).

Marcello De Cintio writes of taxi drivers he has come to know through interviews conducted in places such as Tim Horton’s in Canadian locations from St. John’s to Vancouver and as far north as Yellowknife. He writes with empathy about “who these drivers were before they drove taxi” (6) and “what makes them unique” (8). No one but Di Cintio could have written this book! It needed the passion and erudition and gentleness of this highly skilled reporter of human decency. From the Epilogue/
The Long Journey of Nathan Phelps: “We need to listen to the otherwise unheard, and see the otherwise invisible. Only when we open ourselves up to them can we acknowledge the stories that surround us” (253).

Di Cintio closes with a “Pandemic Postscript” catching up with many of the drivers previously interviewed.