Ahmed Mahamud Ali, 73, drove for City Cabs in Yellowknife. He had been with the company for ten years and was known to other drivers as "Uncle." "He was good natured, he was a good driver. We never had complaints about him. He was very kind-hearted and polite with the customers," said City Cab general manager Shirley McGrath. Originally from Somalia, Mr. Ali fled that country's civil war for a new life in Canada. He personally supported a group of children in Somalia who had been orphaned by the war. He was regarded as a pillar of the local Somali community. At 3:21 a.m. on November 19, 2018, he answered a call from the Fraser Arms apartment block and drove an 18-year-old man to his home on Wilkinson Crescent near a cul de sac. Mr. Ali had asked his passenger to prepay the fare. This angered the man and an argument intensified at the destination. The man claimed that Mr. Ali shoved him and then fled from the cab. The passenger pursued him into the cul de sac and beat him unconscious "in an act of uncontrollable rage," fatally injuring him. For the next 25 minutes, while Mr. Ali lay bleeding, the killer went back and forth between Mr. Ali and the house, trying to decide what to do. He and the man's 50-year-old father finally decided to take Mr. Ali to the hospital. The killer loaded Mr. Ali into the back seat of the City Cab SUV and his father drove Mr. Ali to the Stanton Territorial Hospital, parking in the front driveway at 4:07 a.m. The father did not notify hospital staff or call them on his cell phone. Instead he walked home, stopping to call the hospital from a pay phone, telling staff about Mr. Ali in a disquised voice but not clearly indicating where he was. After the call the father continued on his way home and tried to conceal Mr. Ali's blood by shoveling snow over it. When questioned by police later that morning he said that his son was home with him all night and that he had not heard anything happening in the street. Hospital staff did not find Mr. Ali until 4:47, 40 minutes after he was left in front of the hospital. Mr. Ali was unconscious and was pronounced dead shortly afterward. North West Territories Supreme Court Justice Andrew Mahar acknowledged that four years "was an unusually low sentence for the circumstances" but said he took into account the killer's "unusually low age... his early guilty plea to the charge of manslaughter, his sincere regret and remorse for the circumstances, and his lack of a criminal record or any violent past." Maher also noted that the killer "did not plan to commit his crime, and there was no evidence Ali had been targeted." The Justice also considered significant Gladue factors, particularly the impact on the killer of systemic racism experienced by Indigenous people. [Next column]

Ahmed Mahamud Ali (Source: detail of photo provided by Hussein Hasan via CBC News.) Fourteen victim impact statements were delivered at the sentencing hearing. In one of them family member Nur Ali said "Islam teaches us to forgive," and gesturing at the two convicted men through tears, said "I forgive both of them." Mr. Ali's death brought the issue of cab driver safety home to local drivers. City Cab had no security alarms or protocols for drivers to follow in dangerous situations. Company cabs at one time had alarm buttons on their meters, but the buttons were not included when the meters were replaced. City Cab driver Abdullah Ali (no relation) said that it was not uncommon for drivers to get punched while on the job. He himself had been beaten up while working. However in 20 years he had never heard of a Yellowknife driver being killed. "This is your job. You can't stop to say 'I'm scared'." On December 10, 2018 about 80 cabs formed a procession in memory of Mr. Ali. On January 27, 2020, the killer was convicted of manslaughter and sentenced to four years in prison. His father was sentenced to time served (six months) for being an accessory to aggravated assault.