Toronto Mayor John Tory bends over for Uber

But it's not His Worship who's gonna be taking it dry... it's the city's thousands of mostly immigrant cab drivers.

Latest news is that Tory is weaseling out of his responsibilities by sending his capitulation to Uber before city council.

The entire fake drama about "oh my goodness - we don't know how to deal with this new technology" is a pile of bullshit. Tory and his minions always knew how to deal with the alleged "new technology." The law is quite unambiguous; if you're delivering people from point A to point B for money, you need a taxi license.

Period.

"New technology" has absolutely nothing to do with anything.

If you are delivering people from point A to point B for money without the required taxi licence, your vehicle should be confiscated and you should go to jail.

These Uber drivers are breaking the law, and they get away with it because nobody at city hall has the balls to do anything about it.

After all, Uber is popular!

The same sordid deal is going down in Ottawa at this very moment. Once again, the folks charged with enforcing the laws are coming up short.

Suddenly law-breaking behaviour is acceptable because it's a "disruptive technology" and lots of people like it. And law-abiding hard working people who have played by the rules are hung out to dry.

How is this possible?

Toronto's top cop cops out on Uber crack-down

Toronto Police Chief Mark Saunders claims his cops are handcuffed by the legal ambiguity of Toronto's taxi licensing laws.

Toronto Police Chief Mark Saunders is full of shit.

There's no ambiguity whatsoever in the laws cited at the end of the linked story. If you're transporting people for a fee, you fall under the auspices of the taxi regulations.

Period.

He is weaseling out of his responsibilities.

The fact that lots of folks like the convenience of Uber should have no bearing on whether or not he instructs his police force to enforce the law.

Sure, lots of folks might like saving a few bucks on a cab fare... how is that a reason to ignore the law?

And who can resist the promise of "making great money for completely flexible hours?" That's the bullshit Uber puts out to lure wannabe unlicensed cabbies into the streets of big cities all over the world.

I'd be thrilled to make great money and have completely flexible hours myself!

That's the fantasy that Uber dangles in front of prospective Uber drivers. They don't spend a lot of time explaining that prospects have to do something illegal in order to make that great money, which generally turns out to be not that great.

So a few sharpies in San Francisco profit big-time from having this stock market play run up its putative value into the multiple billions, some college students get to make the payments on their new Honda Civics, and tens of thousands of mostly immigrant full-time cabbies get to see their livelihoods disappear. 

This is happening because people like Toronto's Police Chief Saunders and Mayor John Tory are intimidated by the lawyers that those San Francisco billionaires can unleash on them.

It's got nothing to do with "legal ambiguity."

Our elected representatives need to curb Uber before somebody gets hurt

And people are already being hurt.

People who worked a lifetime to pay off a taxi license, because they were playing by the rules, are being tossed overboard because Uber is being allowed to poach the taxi business.

Mayor John Tory has come out for Uber.

Where does that leave the people who have played by the rules all their lives ?