Taxi driver made 'dangerous' remarks about Chinese people to passenger

A Glasgow taxi driver has been accused of making “dangerous” remarks about Chinese people following a complaint from a passenger.

An investigation was launched into Thomas Reilly’s conduct after it was alleged he made racist comments.

It was claimed he told the passenger that “people who live in this country should not be speaking their own language” while discussing Chinese people attending a Chinese school in Springburn.

The driver, who said most of the complaint was a “load of rubbish”, admitted he said he didn’t like the country’s culture as they eat “dogs and cats”.

Mr Reilly also claimed he had video evidence to support his defence but refused to show it to the city’s licensing committee. He said he would be using it in legal action against the complainant.

Councillors on the committee chose to suspend his taxi driver’s licence for the unexpired portion of its duration. The licence had already expired on March 31 but Mr Reilly had requested a renewal, which allowed him to keep working while that application is considered.

He told councillors he was planning to retire but submitted the renewal bid to defend himself against the complaint. Cllr Leòdhas Massie, Your Party, said he believed Mr Reilly had expressed “sinophobic” and “dangerous” views.

The complaint, submitted to the council’s taxi and private hire enforcement unit, alleged the driver had told the passenger, who was going to Chinese classes at the University of Glasgow, that there are “lots of people in Springburn studying Chinese”.

He claimed Mr Reilly had said “this is our country, they should not be learning their language here” and, after being told the passenger had just returned from China, added: “I do not like them, they eat cats and dogs and anything that moves, it’s f****** dirty.”

The passenger said he asked Mr Reilly if he “understood what he was saying was racist” but the driver insisted it wasn’t. It was alleged, at the end of the journey, the taxi driver added he was not racist but “a passionate animal activist”. The passenger said this “felt completely disingenuous”.

Mr Reilly was interviewed by enforcement officers after the incident. He appeared before the licensing committee on Wednesday.

At the hearing, Mr Reilly said he “admitted to the remarks I made about not going to China” but “the rest is a load of rubbish”. He told the committee he had said he was “really surprised” about the “amount of young people who actually want to go and take the time” to learn Chinese who were “born in this country”.

“I never said there’s anything wrong with that, it’s just surprising young people want to actually do something”.

He admitted he said he didn’t like the culture or “their cruelty to animals”. “I said I don’t like they eat cats, dogs… it’s not my kind of place to go.”

But he claimed he had made “a factual remark”, not “a racist comment”. Mr Reilly, who said he had been a taxi driver for over 40 years, also said he had relatives from Jamaica and Nigeria.

He said: “I resent being called a racist. That’s why I’m here, I am retiring, I could have walked away but I’m here to defend myself.

“You decide whether you believe I’m a liar or telling the truth. I’m a truthful person, I’ve gave you the truth. I don’t see why I should show a video.”

Cllr Massie said Mr Reilly had expressed views “which I do genuinely and fundamentally believe are sinophobic”.

“You have said here that you have expressed views which have tarred an entire nation and culture of people… with this idea that they all eat domestic pets. It is an unfair and untrue perception about Chinese people.”

He added: “You have said repeatedly this is an issue of freedom of speech. You have the right to express yourself, you don’t have the freedom of consequence.

“That’s how society operates, you express your views and a lot of the time there is a consequence to expressing those views.

“I think the views you are expressing are dangerous and they are feeding into a growing sense of sinophobia that is being directed against the Chinese community here in Glasgow and across the UK.”