Uber in court with City of Toronto over legality of ride-hailing operations

TORONTO – An Ontario judge questioned Monday whether the court was the right avenue to resolve a dispute between the ride-hailing service Uber and the City of Toronto.

The city is seeking a permanent injunction on the company’s operations, arguing Uber is a taxi company and must abide by the city’s regulations.

But Uber says in its court filings that it is a communications company, not a taxi service or brokerage.

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Judge Sean Dunphy repeatedly cut off the city’s lawyer, Michelle Wright, as she made her arguments Monday.

“You’ve passed a bylaw, you’ve revised it multiple times since the Internet came on the scene – I’m highly interested if you’ve snared this business in your net,” he said.

“But is the court the right place to get political courage to change bylaws? … It’s not my job to help you.”

Tweet This Click to share quote on Twitter: "You've passed a bylaw, you've revised it multiple times since the Internet came on the scene - I'm highly interested if you've snared this business in your net," he said.</p><p>"But is the court the right place to get political courage to change bylaws? … It's not my job to help you."

Uber offers passengers various services through its online app, from taxi and limousine rides to rides with ordinary drivers through its cheaper UberX application.

Dunphy admonished the city for going after the company rather than the UberX drivers, who operate as a taxi without a license.

READ MORE: Toronto taxi drivers stage protest against Uber as court hearing begins

“You have a group of drivers, but you cannot trap all of them in your net,” Dunphy said.

“You’d rather go after the Godfather.”

Wright laid out the rules and regulations surrounding taxis, limousines and their brokerages.

Again, the judge fired back: “If you use Bell Canada to call a taxi, would you call them a taxi brokerage?”

Uber applied for a taxi brokerage licence through the city about a month ago, but didn’t apply for a limousine licence.

Mayor John Tory has said new technologies such as Uber’s are here to stay and the city must figure out a way to work with them.

He said, however, that Uber cannot simply flout the city’s rules for taxis.

Taxi drivers have been vocal in their opposition to Uber, and roughly 500 staged a noisy protest outside Toronto City Hall on Monday morning.