Shame on Mayor Andy Fillmore

Uber has a sexual assault problem; Halifax must insist on filed background checks

Shame on Mayor Andy Fillmore of Halifax. He has been persuaded by an American corporation that some citizens of Halifax deserve less protection than others.

Fillmore supports the idea that while Taxi drivers already file their backround checks with the Halifax Regional Municipality, ride hail corporations like Uber and Lyft should be allowed to manage these checks themselves.

It is astonishing to think, almost 15 years after the arrival of Uber in Canada, that politicians are still being spun by Uber’s military-level psychological operations, persuaded to swallow and then regurgitate Uber’s narratives to the very voters that elected them to protect their well being.

I have watched as mayor after mayor detached from rationality and begin promoting the well-being of an extractive American corporation over the best interests of small, mostly family-owned local businesses.

Tory in Toronto; Crombie in Mississauga; Watson in Ottawa. They all woke up one day believing a complex service with huge, real fixed costs could be delivered at a fraction of the actual price by part-time dilletantes with no training and no screening.

Olivia Chow, who came to fame for riding a bike to work, has agreed to allow 90,000 ride hail vehicles roam the streets on which 5,500 Taxis had once been the tightly-capped legal limit. It’s a form of insanity.

It’s troubling enough when the contagious irrationality involves financial fantasies, gridlock nightmares or exploding emissions.

However, when it comes to the physical safety of residents riding in a vehicle for hire, official obliviousness is beyond troubling. It’s criminally irresponsible. It’s a failure to provide the duty of care. It exposes vulnerable citizens to known harms. Halifax Mayor Andy Fillmore is the latest paid politician to succumb to Uber’s Tobacco-industry propaganda tactics while putting riders at risk.

Fillmore has actually adopted the position that while Taxi drivers need to file their background checks with Halifax Regional Municipality, ride hail drivers like Uber and Lyft do not.

The so-called logic, and I use that term as lightly as it can possibly be used, is that it’s just as good to have Uber and Lyft drivers file their background checks with Uber and Lyft. This way, staff at Halifax Regional Municipality don’t have to waste time ensuring every professional driver in the city actually has a valid police background check. (Staff actually RECOMMENDED they manage the background checks in a December 8th report.)

Fillmore is happy to trust  American corporations to track this information. So that any time your daughter or your wife or your mother or anyone else you love and care about gets into the back seat of a hired vehicle, you can be confident knowing that  Dara Khosrowshahi, the famously transparent CEO of Uber who is directly accountable to you, is vouching for the fact that your driver is not a criminal.

Except that, WHOOPS, Uber has a sexual assault problem. A BIG sexual assault problem: in California at present, a massive multi-district lawsuit (MDL) involving more than 3,000 sexual assault cases against Uber is proceeding in as an historic event. The master complaint alleges that Uber was aware for years of driver assaults and failed to implement crucial safety measures like biometric checks, in-car cameras, and enhanced background screenings, prioritizing profit over safety.

In an 84-page Safety Report issued in December 2019, Uber disclosed that it had received nearly 6,000 reports of sexual assaults, including 464 rape allegations, during its rides in 2017, 2018, and through October 2019.

In the California MDL, several common questions of fact warranting consolidation were identified including:

• Uber’s knowledge of driver sexual harassment, assault, and rape.
• Uber’s failure to improve safety procedures and policies.
• Uber’s failure to require driver sexual harassment or assault training.
• Uber’s failure to conduct adequate driver background checks.
• Uber’s failure to implement app safety features.
• Uber’s failure to address passenger reports of sexual assault.
• Uber’s failure to terminate assaulting or unfit drivers.
• Uber’s marketing tactics and failure to warn passengers of risks.
• Uber’s status as a common carrier.
• Uber’s false statements regarding safe rides.

On August 7^th, 2025, the New York Times published a news report unprecedented in its detail and depth on what it calls “Uber’s festering sexual assault problem.”

The Times investigation found that Uber’s internal data indicating sexual misconduct reports averaged about once every eight minutes in the U.S. between 2017 and 2022.

ONCE EVERY EIGHT MINUTES.

And Andy Fillmore is spouting their corporate line.

The Canadian Press reported on January 15 that Mayor Andy Fillmore  is opposed to the ride hail filing requirements recommended by staff, saying they will “add more red tape for drivers and the municipality while raising costs for users and drivers.”

“Fillmore suggested Uber and other ride-hailing companies could enter into a data-sharing agreement with the municipality that would require regular updates about driver information. As well, he said recurring audits would be a good idea,” CP reports.

“Fillmore said the Halifax model is cumbersome and would drain staff resources while driving up the cost of using ride-hailing vehicles.”

Take a moment to review that last line: “Fillmore said the Halifax model is cumbersome and would drain staff resources while driving up the cost of using ride-hailing vehicles.” (Also, ignore the fact that Taxi drivers have been doing this forever.)

Just consider the fact that each of these points is a Key Message straight out the talking points Uber has used for over a decade. Jay Goldberg did a really bad job of delivering them on the CBC on January 20.

But Jay Goldberg works for the Consumer Choice Center, the American front organization hired to hypnotize officials regulating tobacco, alcohol, sports betting and ride share.

Andy Fillmore is supposed to work for the residents of Halifax. Shame on Mayor Fillmore for supporting Uber’s corporate goals over citizens’ safety.

Haligonians deserve better.