Roland Goyer, 55, had been a driver for Taxi Moderne in Montréal for about six years, but his taxi driving experience actually went back 35 years. He was married with four chldren. A Taxi Moderne dispatcher described him as "very quiet." George Jones, an inspector for Taxi Moderne, knew Mr. Goyer well and said that there had never been a customer complaint against him. At about 2 p.m. on August 14, 1992, he was dropping off a 27-year-old woman in a residential neighbourhood near the corner of du Haut Anjou and Metropolitain boulevards when she told him that she didn't have money for the fare. According to the woman, a drug addict living on welfare with an 18-month-old child, she told Mr. Goyer that she was visiting a friend and would borrow the money from her. When Mr. Goyer refused, the woman claimed she offered to leave her identification with him and climbed into the front seat. When she opened her purse Mr. Goyer saw that she was carrying a hunting knife. He panicked and "threw himself on her." A struggle ensued and she stabbed him to death. Her lawyer argued that the woman had acted in self defence and should be set free pending her trial. Asked why the woman was carrying a knife, he could offer no explanation but suggested that she might have been attacked in the past. The lawyer claimed that the woman herself had called police to the murder scene. This contrasted with the initial police statement that she had tried to flee after the attack but was captured and handcuffed within minutes. The lawyer said that an autopsy would reveal whether or not she had used legitimate force in defending herself. Mr. Goyer had been stabbed repeatedly in the chest. In the event the lawyer's bid to have his client released was rejected and she was held in custody for two months. In February, 1994 she pleaded guilty to manslaughter and was sentenced to 44 months in jail. The Crown had asked for a five-year sentence.

Pallbearers carry Roland Goyer's coffin into St. Vincent Ferrier church on Jarry St. East. (Source: La Presse (Montréal), August 18, 1992, p. A3. Photo by Télé-Metropole, via Bibliothèque et Archives nationales du Québec.) Mourners at Mr. Goyer's funeral included about 200 taxi drivers and about 90 taxis joined the procession to the cemetery. During the funeral, knots of drivers talking about the dangers of taxi driving and the lack of safety measures in place to protect drivers. Robert Lafond an 18-year veteran with Co-op Montréal, complained of 80-hour work weeks with no salary base and the constant threat of a dangerous fare. "What have I gotten out of it? A divorce," he laughed ruefullly. "It's no normal life." Asked if he thought Goyer's death would be the catalyst for safer conditions for drivers, Lafond pointed to the murder of Octavio Velasquez last year and asked "What did that change?" Representatives from Montréal's various taxi leagues planned to meet the day after the funeral to discuss shields and other possible safety measures.