Fridays for Future & Cycling Good Cheer

This weekend saw two cycling events take place in Toronto and the two atmospheres couldn’t be any different with one being a protest ride and the other being a festive one. Let’s recap what happened during these two events.

Fridays For Future Ride & Protest

On Saturday, December 7, Fridays for Future Toronto hosted a ride and protest calling for the repealing of the Ford government’s anti bike lane Bill 212. The ride started at High Park and ended at MPP Christine Hogarth’s office near Norseman and Islington. Not even the snow could stop the roughly 150 people from taking part in the ride. Here’s a photo of the ride just before it left High Park.

Here’s a video compilation I made of the ride, while you can read Jun N’s take here.

Here’s the group gathered in front of MPP Christine Hogarth’s office.

Ann Letterman kicked off the protest with a song.

Here are a few signs opposing Bill 212.

Alex of Fridays for Toronto organized the ride and was the MC for the protest.

Yida provided the land acknowledgement.

Gabrielle focused her speech on facts such as how bike lanes improve the safety of all road users and boost business activity as what happened on Bloor Street in The Annex.

Sophia is a Grade 9 student at Ursula Franklin Academy and called on people to stop pushing for more and reminded everyone climate change is already here.

Angela Bischoff of the Ontario Clean Air Alliance lamented about the Ford government's scrapping of the cap-and-trade program and their costly moves to expand gas and nuclear power generation. She led a chant “No nukes, no gas, shove that carbon up your ass!”

Elsa Lam – editor of Canadian Architect Magazine – talked about the recent Auditor General’s report which highlighted the wasting of billions over the Ontario Place redevelopment and moving the Ontario Science Centre there.

Molly is another high school student who talked about the Ford government’s smoke and mirrors attempting to hide their cuts to education and the loss of 7000 education workers.

Alex Adams of the Ontario Health Coalition focused on the Ford government’s plans to privatize healthcare despite promising not to do so. He also talked about the closures of emergency rooms and Bill 124 which limited wage increases for healthcare workers.

Kevin is a student at Bloor Collegiate Institute who said Bloor Street is a lifeline and that biking is a game changer which saved his parents thousands of dollars in transit fares. He also said bike lanes support the transit system.

Alex offered some closing remarks including next steps such as potential direct actions once bike lanes get removed on portions of Yonge and Bloor Streets, as well as encouraging people to sign up for Fridays for Future Toronto’s e-newsletter. He led another chant earlier on saying “Less traffic, less emissions, Hogarth should get some vision!” along with another variant focused on Doug Ford.

The protest closed off with a couple of performances by Naomi and Saskia including Tom Petty’s “I Won’t Back Down”.

A bunch of us rode together after the ride up Islington before heading east on the Bloor bike lanes.

Cycling Good Cheer

Sunday, December 8 marked the fifth time the Toronto Community Bikeways Coalition hosted their Cycling Good Cheer ride! Unlike in past years, this year’s main ride started at Mabelle Park in Etobicoke with three feeder rides in Scarborough, North York, and Christie Pits. Helen, Mozzie, and I chose to start at Christie Pits.

Here’s a photo of the group assembled at Christie Pits.

Here’s Janet Joy with her big red nose and chose to go by Ruby instead of Rudolph this time.

Additional riders at Bloor and Christie.

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Regrouping at Bloor and St. George.

Janet Joy getting the crowd pumped up.

Here’s a short video I recorded at Bloor and Bedford. I counted 56 people, but there were a few additional people who were further behind that I missed.

Santa makes his appearance known.

The Grinch made a statement about how Doug Ford stole Ontario Place, the Ontario Science Centre, and Complete Streets.

Hi Mozzie!

Riding down Yonge Street.

The ride ended at Toronto Metropolitan University’s ice rink.

Santa and his reindeer thanking everyone for coming to the ride.

One last shot of Helen and Mozzie.

You can read Jun N’s take of the ride all the way from Mabelle Park here.

Final Thoughts

Thanks to Fridays for Future Toronto and the Toronto Community Bikeways Coalition for hosting this weekend’s events. With the number of cycling events that happened as of late, it’s important for us to pace ourselves while keeping our eyes on the prize to vote Ford out of office. Unless any other group rides happen before then, hope you and your loved ones have a Merry Christmas!