

Joshua Freeman, CP24.com





A picketer who was struck by an aggressive driver at York University Friday says he feels lucky to be alive.

“When he flew around this corner I thought I was gone,” picketer Terry Conlin said Friday.

Conlin was walking the picket line near the Rexall Centre with other striking workers when a vehicle approached around 11:45 a.m.

“We had just put our safety barrier back in position and the first car that approached – the driver got out of the car and threw the barrier aside and was swearing and yelling,” Conlin said. “A couple members of the line approached and tried to tell him that it was a legal picket and he should not be doing what he did. He just swore and got back in the car.”

But Conlin said what happened next left him astonished.

“He accelerated –and not gently. He hit my knee. I buckled forward onto the hood of the car and he flew around the corner at incredible speed,” he said.

With Conlin still on the hood, the driver continued and turned a corner onto Hoover Road, driving at least 500 yards, by his estimate.

“When he flew around this corner I thought I was gone. When he turned onto Hoover I thought I was gone,” Conlin said. “If I had not been able to hold on, I don’t think I’d be talking to you right now.”

He said the driver eventually stopped the car and ordered him off the hood before driving away.

Toronto Paramedic Services looked Conlin over at the scene, but he declined to go to hospital.

Paramedics said another man in his 50s who was struck by the vehicle was taken to hospital to be treated for a knee injury.

The vehicle, a black, four-door sedan, left the scene after the incident but was later identified, police said.

Some 3,700 teaching assistants and other staff have been picketing at the university since Tuesday after they voted to reject the latest contract offer from the school. The move prompted the school to cancel classes, though campus facilities remain open.

Teaching assistants at the University of Toronto are also on strike and have been picketing since Monday.

The striking workers say their main issues are job security and wages.

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