Peter Gross came into my life on September 25, 2018. Of course, Peter Gross was a part of my life for as long as I can remember, as a personality on CityTV and a friendly voice on 680News, but in 2018 I met him for the first time when he visited for an episode of my podcast Toronto Mike'd.
Peter is a very hard working and talented man. He's responsible for both the Down the Stretch newspaper and podcast, a TMDS production! But he also earns money delivering food for DoorDash and Uber. He earned $600-$800 a week doing so, and yes, "earned" is past tense.
Back in March, Peter learned his auto insurance from Intact Insurance Company was not being renewed. We discussed this in great detail in episode 1450 of Toronto Mike'd. Intact Insurance Company accused Peter of purposefully withholding information about a recent at-fault accident he had. As you'll hear in this episode, Peter did no such thing. Peter cannot tell a lie. Peter was asked if there was any accident he was not at fault for, and Peter answered the question honestly. We played a recording of the call in this episode - Peter kept the receipts.
Worse than not renewing his insurance, which prevents Peter from working for Uber Eats and earning that $600-$800 dollars a week, Intact Insurance Company put "Insurance Misrepresentation" on his record, which has prevented Peter from getting any other insurance so he can get back to work. Again, Peter answered the questions he was asked honestly and is now black-balled from getting any insurance. To drive around he's now paying an exorbitant amount for facility insurance. Over $600 a month, and he still can't earn with Uber.
Peter filed a civil suit against Intact Financial Corporation, owners of Intact Insurance Company, seeking damages, but the lawyer for Intact Financial Corporation told the judge Peter's call to secure the insurance was actually with BrokerLink, a network of insurance brokers across the country, and she said BrokerLink and Intact Insurance Company were two completely different companies. In other words, Peter's beef was with BrokerLink and he should be suing them. Peter and I discussed this in great detail immediately after his court appearance and you can hear that conversation here.
But here's the sticky wicket... The BrokerLink companies are subsidiaries of Intact Financial Corporation (TSX: IFC) and are affiliated with Intact Insurance Company and Jevco Insurance Company. How do I know this? I just copied and pasted that sentence from https://www.brokerlink.ca/about-us.
Peter is out a lot of money because of this simple misunderstanding, and thanks to the "Insurance Misrepresentation" label, there's no hope in sight for him. Intact should do the right thing and remove that label from Peter's permanent record so he can get automobile insurance that allows him to make an honest living.
