The City of Toronto wants a local court to shut down Uber. The news comes just one day after an Uber executive was revealed to have suggested digging into the personal lives of journalists who write about the ridesharing company.

In its Tuesday application for an injunction, Toronto claims that the company "operates in breach of the City’s licensing by-laws insofar as, among other things, it operates as a taxicab brokerage and limousine service company."

Uber has fought similar regulatory battles elsewhere around the globe and has prevailed to some degree. Most famously, the California Public Utilities Commission, which regulates taxis in the Golden State, created an entirely new class of transit for Uber and its competitors.

The company’s Canadian spokesman, Xavier Van Chau, did not immediately respond to Ars’ request for comment. On Tuesday, Van Chau told Bloomberg, "It’s disappointing that city bureaucrats have deployed expensive legal tactics to attempt to halt progress."

According to the Toronto Star, Mayor-elect John Tory said in a statement that Uber and related services are "here to stay."

"It is time our regulatory system got in line with evolving consumer demands in the 21st century," he added. "As mayor, I intend to see that it does, while being fair to all parties, respecting the law and public safety."

In an affidavit submitted to the court, Tracey Cook, the city’s executive director of its Municipal Licensing and Standards Division, testified:

Uber disputes that it carries on business as a taxicab brokerage or limousine service company. It characterizes itself as a "technology company" that simply enables "ridesharing." This is an unsupportable characterization of Uber’s business given the breadth and scope of its activities. First, according to the information that Uber makes publicly available, Uber recruits, screens, and arranges for drivers to take passengers from point A to point B, at the request of the passenger. Uber collects payment for each trip from the passenger via the passenger’s credit card, deducts a percentage for the services it provides, aggregates and transfers payment to the driver each week via direct deposit to the driver’s bank account, and provides an electronic record of each trip to both the passenger and driver. Second, the term "ridesharing" is, in my view, another word for carpooling. It is abundantly clear from Uber’s operations that it is not engaged in or facilitating carpooling. It brokers vehicle transportation for compensation only.

Tammy Robbinson, a City of Toronto spokeswoman, told Ars that the city wasn’t sure when it would get a ruling on the proposed injunction. "We are unclear or the timelines, but have asked the courts to deal with his as expediently as possible," she wrote by e-mail.