City’s two-tier taxi licence racist, tribunal hears

The city must abolish its two-tiered taxi licensing regime, which has resulted in racial discrimination against hundreds of immigrant cab drivers, the Ontario Human Rights Tribunal heard Wednesday.

But in a passionate rebuttal, the city denied any link between race and the supposedly “inferior” class of licence possessed by many immigrant cab drivers — a subject that has fuelled tensions between councillors and cab drivers in recent months as the city mulls systemic reforms.

The competing arguments Wednesday marked the final phase of a hearing into the complaint of Asafo Addai, a Ghanian cab driver who says he was subject to licensing discrimination because he is black.

“Until the city treats all taxi cab licence owners equally, racialized persons will continue to suffer from the economic disadvantage and social stigma that arise from the distinctions created by the two-tier taxicab licensing system,” his lawyers, Peter Rosenthal and Reni Chang, asserted in written closing submissions.

At issue are the two different types of cab licences available in Toronto. When the city switched over from the standard licence to the so-called ambassador licence in 1998, the approximately 3,500 drivers with the standard version were allowed to keep them. The primary difference between the two is that the standard licence can be sold or transferred to other drivers, while the ambassador cannot.

As more visible minorities have entered the taxi business in recent decades, Ms. Chang said, the city began issuing fewer standard licences, eventually eliminating them. As a result, “racialized” persons became over-represented in the “inferior” ambassador class, Mr. Addai alleges.

His concerns are echoed by many Toronto taxi drivers who complain the ambassador licence makes it more difficult to earn a living; while standard licensees have the ability to hire additional drivers, ambassador owners cannot, leaving them out-of-pocket for vacation or illness. Beyond asking that the city revamp its licensing system within a year by implementing a single class of licence for all drivers, Mr. Addai wants $210,000 in damages for lost income and “injury to his dignity, feelings and self-respect.”

Considering the 1,400 ambassador drivers in the city could subsequently file similar claims, a favourable ruling for Mr. Addai could become a major liability for the city.

But a fatal flaw in Mr. Addai’s case, the city contends, is his failure to demonstrate any connection between race and the allegedly adverse treatment suffered by ambassador drivers.

“This is a challenge that falls outside the jurisdiction of the [Human Rights Code],” city lawyer Antonella Cedia asserted.

Regardless, ambassador licences are not an inferior product, Ms. Cedia said, noting the new licensing system was designed to allow more taxi drivers to own their own business. Mr. Addai never applied for a standard licence despite having worked as a cab driver since the late 1980s, she said, and when he applied for his ambassador licence in 2003, he did so with full knowledge of the attached conditions.

“Mr. Addai has not shown that the taxi-licensing regime that he complains about has an adverse impact on him or other persons of colour,” the city contended in written submissions, noting any perceived negative impact of the licence would affect all ambassador drivers equally, regardless of race.

If Mr. Addai wished, he could purchase a standard licence on the open market, Ms. Cedia added. But cab drivers watching the hearing — dozens of whom packed the room — scoffed at this suggestion, saying standard licences go for hundreds of thousands of dollars on the open market, an unaffordable proposition for many.

Jacob Leibovitch, executive director of a local taxi drivers’ association, said his members are hoping the hearing spurs the city to roll out changes. “It’s obvious to ambassador drivers they suffer a disadvantage [due to] their class of plate,” Mr. Leibovitch said.

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Source: National Post