Summer of discontent for ice-cream trucks
We’ve been chased like a criminal, like we’re selling drugs
They may bring lip-smacking joy to children and adults, especially in this summer of record heat. But for some of Canada’s ice-cream truck vendors, it’s another summer of discontent as they wrestle with municipalities over restrictions on where they can sell their frozen treats and how loud they can blare their tinny musical beats.
In some cases, vendors and city officials appear to have resolved their differences. But others have taken their frosty battles to court. One vendor has gone so far as to argue that an Ontario municipality’s bylaws are so restrictive they infringe upon his constitutional mobility rights to pursue a livelihood.
From May to August 2009, Amadeus Blazys, who operates the Mister Twister ice cream business, and some of his drivers were charged more than 40 times for selling ice cream on the streets of Brampton without a municipal licence.
In response, Mr. Blazys and the others went before the Ontario Court of Justice last year and asserted the city doesn’t issue municipal licences to anyone who wants to sell ice cream from a mobile truck. Because this policy infringes upon their Charter rights to be able to earn a living, the bylaws upon which the charges against them were based should be declared “of no force or effect,” they argued.
But in a 60-page ruling, a judge dismissed the application, saying they had failed to show on a balance of probabilities that their Charter rights had been infringed upon.
Brampton officials said this week that the city does, in fact, issue licences for mobile ice cream truck vendors — there are currently 10 licensed vendors — but only allows them to sell in commercial areas or townhouse complexes, not on city streets.
They say these restrictions are in place for public safety — they worry kids will run into the street without paying attention to traffic — and because many residents find the truck’s jingles to be a “nuisance.”
During the summer months, “it’s not unusual to get a minimum of one complaint a day” about ice cream trucks, said Doreen Biesenthal, the city’s manager of bylaw enforcement.
But Mr. Blazys said in an interview he has no intention of paying the fines he owes and is considering other legal challenges against the city, whose bylaw enforcers go out of their way to “harass” ice cream vendors — an allegation the city denies.
Michael Dogantzis, who operates the Mega Cone ice cream business, is girding for a similar legal battle with the city of Kitchener.
When he moved to the city in 2004, he says he was shocked when the city denied him a licence and told him that ice cream trucks were not allowed in residential areas.
Over the years, he has operated out of other municipalities — he concentrates his business in London, about one hour away — but on occasion, he admits, he would do some business in Kitchener.
As a result, he racked up $32,000 in fines for not having the proper licence. But Mr. Dogantzis refuses to pay. Why should he, he says, when he has repeatedly gone back to the city to try to get a licence and been denied?
“We’ve been chased like a criminal, like we’re selling drugs,” said Mr. Dogantzis, who is due back in court in September.
Patricia Harris, Kitchener’s manager of licensing, confirmed that while the city has several stationary food trucks and Dickie Dee-style ice cream tricycles, it has never issued a licence for a mobile ice cream truck.
Other disputes involving ice cream trucks have reached speedier resolutions.
In Yellowknife last month, according to media reports, a resident went before city council in an attempt to silence the “abusive mechanical noise” from that city’s only ice cream truck.
Truck owner Tamer Akbulud told the CBC that he would lose most of his business if he couldn’t play his music. “That lets kids know I’m in the neighbourhood,” he said.
City officials said this week that Mr. Akbulud has since agreed to reduce the hours he operates, avoid the neighbourhood where the complainant lives and to rotate the different tunes he plays.