Metro Taxi worked “co-operatively and collaboratively” with Ottawa to shut down Bandit cabs, court heard before sound was lost
This unmarked “Bandit Cab” using a temporary, no-name roof light was photographed in Toronto in 2022. Technically, Uber and other rideshares were operating as Bandit cabs before municipalities wrote new by-laws and regulations to legalize them. Photo: Jafar Mirsalari
January 9 court proceedings in Metro Taxi vs Ottawa were interrupted and eventually ended with unrelenting technical difficulties.
Morning proceedings started late, around 10:30am. After the lunch break at 12:30, sound was never recovered despite the fact that the entire case was moved to a new court room around 2:30pm. Observers lost all ability to hear the proceedings from 12:30.
Marc Andre Way of Metro Taxi was on the stand in the morning. This was Way’s third full day of testimony, which his legal team has used to have Way outline almost 50 years of complex and detailed Taxi industry history in Ottawa.
Way’s testimony has covered decades before municipalities like Vanier were amalgamated with Ottawa, and when Gatineau (Hull) was entirely separate.
On Monday, Attorney Marion Sandilands of Conway Litigation focused in on the topic of “Bandit Taxis” and how Ottawa City regulators worked “co-operatively and collaboratively” with the Taxi industry to find them and shut them down.
When Uber arrived and set up shop in 2014, the process that had historically been used to identify and end Bandit Taxi services was not utilized, Way testified before courtroom sound was lost.
