Ontario taxi drivers protest Uber on Parliament Hill

“It’s been a long venture, we started probably six months ago negotiating through various issues that was there, there have been some parliamentary procedures to keep it from getting it to the agenda for whatever reason”, said odd.

The injunction, filed at Quebec Superior Court on Tuesday, asks a judge to rule Uber to be considered a taxi company, and as such to order it to cease operations in the province since its drivers do not hold valid taxi licences.

Uber is a popular choice among millennials, as younger Americans seek new ways beyond traditional taxi services to get around.

Police told local media that they had received reports of people ordering Uber taxis, in order to assault the drivers when they arrived.

Criminal gangs have attacked drivers for the app-based taxi service over the past two days, authorities say.

If councillors vote against an injunction, cabbies say they’ll take their protests to the next level possibly staging major demonstrations starting February 12, just as the NBA’s All-Star event comes to town. “This is transport between point A and point B for payment and it’s clearly illegal” in Quebec without a permit. “With Uber, it’s a customer who is saying where to go – that’s not ride sharing”.

Uber spokesman Jean-Christophe De Le Rue called the union’s accusations “groundless and an attempt to preserve the monopoly of the taxi industry to the detriment of consumers”.

Uber reacted to the reports about their drivers being subjected to beatings and intimidation when in a statement seen the company said: “Recently, you may have heard of cases of isolated intimidation towards Uber driver-partners”.

The Financial Services Commission of Ontario gave Aviva Canada the green light to offer coverage for drivers carrying paying passengers in their own vehicles.

“They’re doing the work they do illegally”, said Ottawa driver Admassu Abebe.