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Montreal’s beleaguered taxi drivers, who say their livelihoods are under attack by UberX, need all the public support they can garner right now if they hope to turn the tide against the popular, if controversial, car service.

But instead of ingratiating themselves with Montrealers, whose allegiance they need to maintain — or, more likely, win back — many drivers seem to be going to great lengths to alienate them.

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Earlier this month, a coalition representing some 800 Montreal taxi drivers announced that it is planning a mass protest by the end of January if Quebec Transport Minister Robert Poëti doesn’t announce concrete plans to shutter UberX during that time. With 24 hours’ notice, the coalition — which hopes to get 2,400 drivers involved in the protest — says its members will block the entrances to all bridges to and from Montreal, as well as access to Trudeau airport in Dorval.

It’s a move that will paralyze traffic in and around the Island for as long as the protest lasts. And while it will certainly increase the visibility of the drivers’ battle with UberX, what it will accomplish more than anything is to further put off Montrealers — taxi riders and otherwise — who have already had to deal with repeated cabbie protests over the past year that have clogged downtown arteries.