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The union representing Saskatoon’s taxi drivers called on city council to reopen a debate on driver safety after a “brutal” attack by a passenger left a cabbie with severe bruising to the face over the weekend.

“With three recent, serious incidents against drivers, the time to act is now,” United Steelworkers (USW) Local 1014 president Malik Draz said in a statement, referring to the beating late Friday night and two unrelated incidents in March.

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“We must work together to legislate protective equipment and ensure that the violent perpetrators are held criminally accountable for these assaults.”

The latest attack happened around 11:30 p.m. on Oct. 13 after a Comfort Cabs driver picked up a man and two women on 22nd Street and they started fighting and “becoming belligerent,” according to Saskatoon police spokeswoman Julie Clark.

The driver, whose name was not released, told the passengers to get out of the vehicle but they refused, Clark said in an email. At that point, the driver and a 20-year-old man stepped out of the vehicle and “a physical altercation” ensued, Clark wrote.