MONTREAL — Driving a taxi was not how Jean-Pierre Derival planned to spend his golden years.
But this week, as the 80-year-old prepared to testify at a trial against the Quebec government's management of the taxi industry, he was behind the wheel of his cab.
"It's unfair, your honour, to deprive the members of their life's work, it's an injustice that I find shocking, and ultimately, it's illegal," Bruce Johnston, a lawyer representing the cab drivers, said in his opening arguments as the month-long trial began at the Montreal courthouse Tuesday. "It was their business, it was their pension fund," he said."For many of them, the decision to buy a taxi permit was the biggest financial decision of their lives, for which they worked and made sacrifices for decades. It was the cornerstone of their financial planning."
"At least if I died, my children could use it," he told the court, after describing the series of labour-intensive, low-paying jobs he had held after immigrating from Haiti in 1971. People can think Uber's arrival in Quebec was a bad thing, that Uber is a bad corporate citizen, and that the old taxi monopoly should have been maintained, Cantin told the court, but the government, he added, made political choices about how it wanted to regulate the industry.
Canada Latest News, Canada Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
Uber legacy: Class-action lawsuit by taxi drivers against Quebec beginsThe lawsuit brought by former holders of Quebec taxi permits alleges the government expropriated their property without proper compensation when it abolished those permits.
Read more »
Trial in class-action lawsuit by taxi drivers over Quebec’s handling of Uber to beginThe class-action alleges the Quebec government’s negligence led to the disguised expropriation of taxi licences in areas where Uber was offering its services
Read more »
Class-action lawsuit by taxi drivers against Quebec's handling of Uber beginsTaxi drivers honked their horns in front of Montreal's city hall, waving signs that read 'stop illegal transportation.'
Read more »
Uber legacy: Class-action lawsuit by taxi drivers against Quebec beginsA trial opens Tuesday in a class-action lawsuit accusing the Quebec government of wiping out hundreds of millions of dollars in the value of taxi permits by allowing ride-hailing company Uber to operate and then by abolishing the permit system.
Read more »
Uber legacy: Class-action lawsuit by taxi drivers against Quebec beginsMONTREAL — A trial opens Tuesday in a class-action lawsuit accusing the Quebec government of wiping out hundreds of millions of dollars in the value of taxi permits by allowing ride-hailing company Uber to operate and then by abolishing the permit sy
Read more »
Uber legacy: Class-action lawsuit by taxi drivers against Quebec beginsMONTREAL — A trial opens Tuesday in a class-action lawsuit accusing the Quebec government of wiping out hundreds of millions of dollars in the value of taxi permits by allowing ride-hailing company Uber to operate and then by abolishing the permit sy
Read more »