Refugee fights Ontario’s driver’s licensing rules
Syrian refugee Shyesh Al-Turki says changing Ontario’s policy on driver’s licences will help refugees find work sooner
Ontario’s driver’s licensing rules discriminate against refugees from war-torn countries by demanding written proof of their driving experience from their country of origin — something not required of visitors to Canada and international driving permit holders, a human rights tribunal has heard.
Getting written authentication of a licence is an impossible task for refugees from war-torn countries without putting their lives at risk, said Hassan Ahmad, lawyer for Syrian refugee Shyesh Al-Turki, in the opening of his tribunal hearing Friday. And refusing to waive the 12-month waiting period for a full-licence road test denies them job opportunities, he added.
“A driver’s licence is a ticket to freedom,” Ahmad told adjudicator Josée Bouchard. “Driving jobs are the most practical and profitable occupations a newcomer can reasonably obtain.”
Bouchard was presiding over a hearing involving a complaint by Al-Turki, who came here with his family in 2016 but was prohibited from working as a delivery person or as an Uber or taxi driver because he was unable to get his Syrian licence authenticated.
Ahmad said the province’s policy “arbitrarily” delineates a list of countries where this requirement is waived, when almost all refugees are from the so-called non-reciprocating countries.
“This case is about the barriers set up by the government that prevent refugees from obtaining their full licence in a timely fashion,” Ahmad noted. (Read more: Syrian refugee taking fight over driver’s licence to rights tribunal.)
Sunil Gurmukh, lawyer for the Ontario Human Rights Commission, said other bodies, such as the College of Trades and World Education Services, accommodate the unique circumstances of refugees by accepting sworn witness statements and affidavits as proof of credentials.
Unlike refugees, he said, visitors who are staying in Canada for less than three months or motorists with an international driving permit are not bound by the same restrictions and can drive freely in Ontario, regardless of their previous driving experience and records.
“The result is the doors to employment are shut off for (refugees) for one year for driving-related jobs,” said Gurmukh, whose commission is an intervener in this case.
Government lawyer Daniel Huffaker, however, said the policy is all about road safety and does not target applicants based on ethnic origin and citizenship. The authentication requirement is a “bona fide, reasonable and justifiable standard intended to promote public safety,” Huffaker said.
The hearing resumes in October.
Reprinted with permission from Toronto Star.