Project Snowball: what happened to it?

It might have changed Uber history; instead, it got Memory Holed

December 28, 2025 update: an Ontario lawyer currently involved in various Uber lawsuits contacted Taxi News to point out that there is no such lawsuit as “R vs Uber Inc” listed in CanLII, or any other database they were able to search. “It’s almost as though Google just made it up,” the lawyer noted. “It does not actually appear to exist.”

In March, 2015, the Globe and Mail ran a tiny little article about “Project Snowball,” a short-lived operation by the Toronto Police Service to ticket Uber drivers for operating as illegal Taxis in Toronto.

13 UberX drivers were charged and were headed to court to defend themselves. I was amazed and fascinated that this was actually happening, and completely committed to covering the court case as it took place in downtown Toronto.

The first scheduled proceeding took place in the Toronto Court Services building on Chestnut Street, just behind City Hall. I arrived early and parked myself at the door of the courtroom, notepad in hand, ready to record every word of information I could. Were Toronto Police actually going to enforce the law against Uber? This was an historic moment, and one that might have completely changed the course of ground transportation history in Canada.

The Uber item did come up, and lawyers from both sides approached the justice for a low, quiet conversation; I could not make out any of the words, but when it was finished, the judge announced that proceedings would be put over to a later date – in April, as I recall.

Disappointed, at least I could make note of the new date.

Again, I turned up early and waited outside the locked court room door. I was certain I had courtroom and the date correct – I wrote them down, straight from the judge’s mouth. This time, however, even less happened; nothing at all happened, actually. I sat through the entire morning’s events, but nothing related to Uber or illegal Taxis ever came up.

This was becoming a logistical nightmare for me: I had moved from Toronto to Durham Region in 2014, and while it was relatively easy for me to get to afternoon or evening events in downtown Toronto, getting there/getting parked/getting in to a 9am court time meant I’d have to get up around 3am to guarantee I’d arrive on time.

I decided to retain an expert who lived in Toronto to cover the Project Snowball court proceedings for me and the Taxi industry. I hired the late, great John Papadakis, paralegal, firebrand, traffic expert, force of nature.

“No worries, Rita, I’ll be there! I’ll talk to the clerk to make sure we have correct information. This will be REALLY interesting to watch!” I could hear the excitement in John’s voice, reminding me of why I loved working with him. John Papadakis loved democracy, justice and the Rule of Law with every cell of his body. His tragically early death cut short a life full of enthusiasm and insight.

I do not recall the date of the next court proceeding, but it must have been some months because when John called me on the way to the new court location, he was trudging through a winter snowstorm at 8am.

“I had to park quite a ways away,” John was shouting into the phone over howling winds. “But don’t worry, I’ll be there on time!”

On that day, much to John’s dismay, nothing happened. I mean, there was no mention of the UberX trial by anyone, it wasn’t posted to the docket, there was no announcement of a date or location change. The UberX hearing just vanished.

Again, John spoke directly with the clerks who assured him they would get new information for him, which they did; he was given a new date, the courtroom information, and told he should show up there.

Which he did – if I recall correctly, two more times. John was absolutely livid that he kept showing up to court proceedings which just vanished into the ether; and I was paying him $250 a pop just to show up and cover nothing. Eventually, despondently, we abandoned the project.

In the decade that followed, I was never able to find any more information on the mysterious Project Snowball. I do know of one retired Toronto City Councillor who says he knows all about Project Snowball’s genesis, and why it ended so swiftly and quietly; but, he will not discuss it with Taxi News. Sadly.

For some reason, two weeks ago, it occurred to me that I should ask Google AI what happened to Project Snowball. The worst that could happen is nothing, right?

Readers know that I am not a fan of AI, and generally consider it untrustworthy and a great source of useless blather. The way Google AI, Grok and especially ChatGPT can simply reel off endless reams of words and text which ultimately mean nothing (or are completely wrong) is astonishing.

“If you can’t dazzle ‘em with brilliance, baffle ‘em with bullshit” is the W.C. Fields quote that comes to mind.

Imagine my excitement, when I read this is from Google AI:

“’Project Snowball’ was a Toronto Police Service sting operation in March 2015 that targeted UberX drivers, resulting in 13 drivers facing charges under the Highway Traffic Act. 

Details of the Operation

• Goal: The operation aimed to enforce licensing and insurance regulations on drivers using the UberX ridesharing service, which police considered an unlicensed taxi service at the time.
• Methodology: Undercover police officers ordered rides through the Uber app. Once picked up, they requested to be driven to a specific location (often another Tim Horton’s), where a uniformed officer was waiting to charge the driver.
• Outcome: The sting resulted in 26 Highway Traffic Act charges against 13 different drivers, primarily related to license and insurance violations.
• Legal Aftermath: All charges resulting from “Project Snowball” were eventually withdrawn following a case that confirmed solicitor-client privilege does not apply to communications between law enforcement and the prosecution regarding disclosure. 

The case that determined the specific issue regarding the disclosure of communications between law enforcement and the prosecution related to ‘Project Snowball’ was the Ontario Superior Court of Justice case, R. v. Uber Canada Inc. (or the individual cases of the drivers, often grouped under the main Uber Canada case name).

The charges against the drivers were ultimately withdrawn after the presiding judge, Justice L. Sokoloff, ruled that certain communications between the Crown (prosecution) and the Toronto Police did not fall under solicitor-client privilege and should have been disclosed to the defence. This ruling created a disclosure issue that led to the collapse of the prosecution’s case.” 

The words above from Google AI were the most information I have ever been able to find on Project Snowball. Imagine my disappointment, then, when I went on to search “Justice L. Sokoloff” in an attempt to locate a file number or date so that I could learn more about the reasons why the charges were withdrawn.

Mere seconds after Google AI told me about “the presiding judge, Justice L. Sokoloff,” I searched “Justice L. Sokoloff.” Here’s what Google AI came back with:

“’Justice L. Sokoloff’ appears to refer to Wendy H. Sokoloff, a lawyer and principal of the personal injury law firm Sokoloff Lawyers in Toronto, rather than an appointed judge in the Ontario court system. 

While there is no record of an L. Sokoloff serving as a judge in the Ontario Superior Court of Justice or the Ontario Court of Justice, search results show:

• Wendy H. Sokoloff is a prominent personal injury lawyer and the named principal of her own firm.
• Her firm has been involved in significant legal cases, including a recent “landmark decision” regarding the interpretation of the Insurance Act.
• Public records detail regulatory matters involving her law practice and advertising standards, which were resolved with the Law Society of Ontario.
• A “Mr. Justice Chalmers” presided over a case involving her professional corporation as a plaintiff.
• The Ontario government has appointed several judges named “Justice [Last Name]” with different last names, such as Justice Neil Kozloff and others, but none named Sokoloff.”

Sigh.

So, AI giveth, and AI taketh away….I’m not sure what the moral of this story is. Maybe that accurate information is just as hard to find in 2025 from a service which purports to be an endless font of factual content as it was in 2015, when the people in power were working hard to keep things hidden.

Having been told that AI is making all information available to everyone, perhaps we are less inclined to actually go digging for any. George Orwell would be proud of this newest form of DoubleThink.

***

If any of my readers have information on Project Snowball or the elusive Justice Sokoloff, please do share by writing taxinews@rogers.com

December 28, 2025 update: an Ontario lawyer currently involved in various Uber lawsuits contacted Taxi News to point out that there is no such lawsuit as “R vs Uber Inc” listed in CanLII, or any other database they were able to search. “It’s almost as though Google just made it up,” the lawyer noted. “It does not actually appear to exist.”