Driving transport and dump trucks is all Ahmad Al Rasoul has known to make a living.

The 50-year-old Toronto man has worked as a truck driver in his native Syria, as well as Jordan, Saudi Arabia and Lebanon, where his family had stayed for four years before they arrived in Toronto in 2016 as government-sponsored refugees under Ottawa’s massive Syrian resettlement program.

“My family is grateful to Canada. We don’t want to be a burden to the country. We just want to start working and support our family as soon as possible,” Rasoul, who fled Homs in 2012 with his wife and six children, said through an Arabic interpreter.

“Everywhere I had been, I got my licence and worked right away. I expected it would take some time for lawyers and engineers to get licensed, but I didn’t expect it’s going to take this long just to get my full licence to work as a driver in Canada.”

In Ontario, because of a 12-month wait period before a G2 licenseholder can take a road test for a full G licence, Rasoul is unable to work in food deliveries and transport industry to supplement his income.

Despite a provision that allows an exemption to the waiting period for foreign-trained drivers, the required paperwork is almost impossible for refugees to obtain, especially those from war-torn countries.

With help from volunteer Omar Khan, Rasoul is taking the Ministry of Transportation of Ontario (MTO) to the human rights tribunal after officials refused to accommodate him and other refugees in similar circumstances. A hearing date is pending after a failed mediation session in May.

The exemption for foreign-trained drivers applies only to applicants who can provide written authentication of their foreign licensed driving experience from the original licensing agency or from the local embassy or consulate.

Many refugees, however, are unable to obtain such documentation from the officials of the country they fled.

In Rasoul’s case, he was fast-tracked for his intermediate G2 licence last June after providing a notarized translation of his still-valid Syrian truck driver’s licence. However, without a functional diplomatic mission in Canada from his homeland, Rasoul cannot provide the written authentication from Syrian authorities to go directly for his G licence.

A G licence is the minimum requirement to pursue a commercial licence to drive tractor-trailers, school buses and transport trucks.

“The issue for me is, we are seeing all these guys who do not want to be on social assistance and do want to work but are faced with this barrier,” said Khan, a computer engineer by profession, who encouraged Rasoul to file his human rights complaints last winter.

“If you aren’t a refugee or have some access to an embassy, you don’t need to wait this one year. You can just get a stamp from your embassy saying the license you have is valid. We think this policy amounts to discrimination.”

An MTO spokesperson said the ministry cannot comment on the case as it is before the human rights tribunal.

In a written response to the tribunal, however, the ministry said the waiting period was meant to provide an opportunity for drivers to practice and incrementally refine their driving skills while subject to a diminishing degree of regulatory oversight.

“This regulation and policy do not create distinctions on the basis of place of origin and are not discriminatory. . . The applicant has indicated that the discrimination in this case arises because it is not possible for him to obtain the documentation set out in the policy from any Syrian authority,” it said.

“However, the application provides no statement as to the evidence that he relies upon to demonstrate that he has ‘held a driver’s licence in the applicable license class for at least 24 months in the last three years. Without knowing the nature of this evidence, Ontario is unable to provide a more detailed response to the application.”

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Abdel Al Dibel, whose family was sponsored by the Canadian government to Toronto from Lebanon in January 2016, said he too wanted to work as a driver to supplement his income from government assistance. He won’t be able to take the test for a G licence until July.

“I worked in construction and drove taxi in my four years in Lebanon with no issue. We love to work. We don’t like to sit around,” said the 50-year-old, who is not part of the human rights complaint. “I’ve been looking for jobs. One employer said to me, show me your G licence and I will give you a job tomorrow.”

Although Rasoul’s 12-month wait will end soon and the individual portion of his human rights complaint will then become moot, Khan said they hope to proceed with the hearing so the circumstances of Syrian and other refugees can be accommodated and they can benefit from the current government exemption of the 12-month wait for the G licence.

“We are not asking the MTO to just hand them the G licence. All we are asking is for experienced refugee drivers, the MTO waive the one-year requirement between G2 and full G testing, so these drivers can continue their testing right away,” said Khan.