Saskatchewan Government Insurance (SGI) has suspended an instructor who teaches semi driving, claiming the instructor was too rough on his students.
But the instructor, Reg Lewis, believes he was suspended due to his critical views on the insurer’s approach to road safety since the infamous Humboldt Broncos bus crash incident.
The public insurer claimed in documents that Lewis had breached its code of conduct with his liberal use of profanity and his “instructional style.” SGI had cited incidents as far back as 2014 detailing Lewis’s various violations.
In one incident cited by SGI, Lewis allegedly yelled at and berated a student for driving the semi over a curb while turning a corner. In another recorded instance, a student experienced “the worst anxiety of his life” last November after the instructor allegedly yelled at him to “Put the [expletive] clutch to the floor and put the [expletive] truck in gear.”
CBC News reported that Lewis’s one-month suspension took effect Christmas Eve.
Lewis said that he is being singled out for being an outspoken critic of the Crown corporation.
“I think SGI is trying to tell me that I should keep my mouth shut — that I shouldn’t be speaking up, that we’re in charge and you’d better damn well better do it our way or you’re going to lose your driving school,” he told CBC News.
Following the Humboldt Broncos crash, Lewis had harshly criticized SGI and the Saskatchewan government for not properly implementing training regulation. At the time of the accident, Ontario was the only province that required semi drivers to take training courses – other provinces asked drivers to only pass a road and written exam to take any sized truck, in any conditions, on any road in Canada.
Saskatchewan has since announced mandatory truck training, starting this spring.
