About 1,000 taxis surrounded Toronto’s City Hall on Monday as the Ontario Supreme Court commenced a three-day court battle to determine whether UberX is an illegal taxi service that needs to cease operations, reports The Globe and Mail.
The gridlock, which included beeping horns, signs in car windows condemning Uber, and a clogged downtown corridor, served as the taxi industry’s form of protest.
Many drivers argue that UberX’s lack of licensing and insurance requirements provide it with an unfair competitive advantage, and some taxi operators claim that their business revenue has dropped by more than 50% since the app became available in Toronto.
“They’re working without license fees,” one driver told the Toronto Star. “Why do we have to pay when they’re ruining our lives?”
In the meantime, another battle is playing out between Toronto’s city council and the courts, with each contending that the other should be responsible for the decision regarding whether UberX is a viable operation in Toronto.
“The mayor has said that he wants to regulate, which is not what this is doing,” Justice Dunphy told The Globe and Mail.
He also raised the question as to why the city seems to be targeting the technology provider itself, instead of individual UberX drivers who are all working without proper licensure and insurance.
“You’re finding it very difficult to catch each and every one of those fish in your net, and you’d rather catch the godfather,” he told the outlet.
In the meantime, an Uber spokesperson has denounced the protest, stating, “Rather than blocking roads and preventing people from getting where they need to be, we’re focused on meeting the needs of Toronto’s riders and drivers, who are all too often left out of the debate.”
