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If Toronto is Canada’s innovation hub, why is the city trying to stop the wildly successful Uber taxi and ride-sharing service from continuing to operate?

Welcome to Toronto, Canada’s innovation hub, home to the MaRS Discovery District, where hundreds of millions in government money are spent “harnessing the full potential of innovation.” However, as with most Canadian cities, love of innovation can be highly abstract, even platonic. They all crave innovation, but when it actually happens city officials often have no interest in its full potential.

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In Toronto, proof that love of innovation isn’t even skin deep came Tuesday when city officials applied for a court injunction to stop the wildly successful and brilliantly innovative Uber taxi and ride-sharing service from continuing to operate.

The city’s chief licensing official, Tracey Cook, said Uber is “continuing to operate in flagrant disregard of the laws of both the city and the province.” Uber poses a risk to public safety, the city says, and operates a taxi cab service “without the lawful authority to do so.”