Syrian refugee in wheelchair blocks TTC bus after several pass him by

The TTC has admitted it made a mistake after a Syrian refugee felt compelledto park his wheelchair in front of a bus,after he said several wouldn't let him board as he waited 90 minutes in the sweltering heatMonday.

MohamadAlhajAbdullahsaid he took action after the drivers of six buses indicated they were full. Some didn't stop, whileothers did withthosedrivers telling him theirvehicles were too crowded.

He began his wait atRedcliff Boulevardand Kipling Avenuearound 3 p.m. with his 10-year-old sonat the start of rushhour.

After waiting an hour and a half in the sun, he finally got fed up.

"That's when I got in front of the [last]bus and told the driver, 'Excuse me, but I will not move' and [asked him] to find a solution for me," he said. "I just wanted to send a message, when you aredisabled."

That's when another man tweeted out a photo of Abdullahblocking thebus.

After about 10 minutes, passengers of the bus convinced the man to move out of the way. Abdullah, who arrived in Canada as a refugee seven months ago, says he then took a taxi home.

He said he used Wheel-Trans to get his son to a dentist'soffice, but he couldn't take the service homebecause itneeds to know specific times for a pickup and he didn't know how long the appointment would last.

Abdullah has used a wheelchair since his spine was badly injuredin a bomb blastin Damascus two years ago.

Shouldn't have happened, TTC says

TTC spokesperson Brad Ross admits thesituation wasn't handled properly and the transit commissionistrying to figure out why.

"It was just the start of rushhour and the buses were very crowded andwe were unable to accommodate this gentleman and his wheelchair," Ross said. "What weare looking at is why the protocols that we have in place werenot applied to this."

Ross said if a bus is full the driver is supposed to call the transit control centre to see if the next bus can accommodatewhoever in a wheelchair is waiting.

If the next bus is also full, the driver should then call Wheel-Trans and someone atthe service will arrange a ride.

Ross said that didn't happen, "and we need to understand why."