Earlier this year, I wrote about attempts to shut down Pickup Pal, a ride sharing website, in Ontario. The Toronto Star reports today that the Ontario Transport Board has ruled that the website is operating illegal in the province by helping strangers offers rides for a fee.
Ontario Transport Board Rules Against Pickup Pal
November 12, 2008
Share this post
2 Comments

Law Bytes
The Law Bytes Podcast, Episode 248: Mark Surman on Why Canada's AI Strategy Should Prioritize Public AI Models
byMichael Geist

November 3, 2025
Michael Geist
October 27, 2025
Michael Geist
October 20, 2025
Michael Geist
October 6, 2025
Michael Geist
September 22, 2025
Michael Geist
Search Results placeholder
Recent Posts
How the Liberal and Conservative Parties Have Quietly Colluded to Undermine the Privacy Rights of Canadians
The Law Bytes Podcast, Episode 248: Mark Surman on Why Canada’s AI Strategy Should Prioritize Public AI Models
We Need More Canada in the Training Data: My Appearance Before the Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage on AI and the Creative Sector
The Law Bytes Podcast, Episode 247: My Senate Appearance on the Bill That Could Lead to Canada-Wide Blocking of X, Reddit and ChatGPT
The Law Bytes Podcast, Episode 246: Mohamed Zohiri on the Rise and Emerging Regulation of Stablecoins

This could be a problem.
Quite possibly a big one, in more than one sense.
sets precedence?
As Mr.Eric Dewhirst stated that Pickup Pal can only be used for “travel from home to work only… can’t cross municipal boundaries… must ride with the same driver each day, and… can’t pay the driver more frequently than weekly”, this of which the restrictions probably imposed by the ruling, doesn’t this set precedence for other rideshare sites such as Craigslist and Kijiji? Furthermore, if the argument that follows is that Pickup Pal was ‘making available’ accessibility to ridesharing, couldn’t a similar argument be construed to other social network sites such as facebook, or even university driven rideshare communities?