March 2025 Bill 212 Update

With the court challenge against the Ford government’s Bill 212 expected to be held on Wednesday, April 16, Toronto’s cycling community will be hosting a Critical Mass ride on Friday, March 28. Meet 6:00 PM at Bloor and Spadina for 6:30 PM departure. As with other Critical Mass rides, the route is never provided ahead of time. This announcement offers a good opportunity to recap what has been happening with this bill since Doug Ford won his third majority last month.

On Tuesday, March 11, the Ontario Superior Court of Justice heard Cycle Toronto’s injunction request to demand that the Ford government not remove bike lanes on Bloor, University, and Yonge until after the court challenge gets heard. While the injunction was unfortunately denied on Friday, March 14, a few critical reports emerged from that process. Some documents from the Ontario government confirmed they knew the bike lane removals would not lead to improved commute times while collisions could increase by 54%. They also mentioned the earliest the bike lane removals could happen is in April 2026 and could continue into 2027, though it’s possible that timeline could be accelerated. Should that April 2026 timeframe been true, it would have made the injunction request moot anyway. You can read the full legal decision here.

A Fridays for Future Toronto direct action at Stantec's office (via FFFTO)

A direct action organized by Fridays for Future Toronto was held the following Tuesday (March 18). Despite the early hour (7:30 AM), over 100 cyclists gathered at Queen’s Park and rode to Stantec’s office at Richmond and Spadina. They were the firm contracted by the Province of Ontario to do design work related to the bike lane removals. While a few of the protesters went inside the office to try to speak with someone at Stantec about their concerns, the company instead called the police, and two protesters were arrested (but released on scene). Subsequent media coverage revealed Stantec was working on only 1.5 kilometres of the bike corridors and would no longer be involved after the drawings are completed, while Richard Southern of CityNews posted the below message on (what was) Twitter that the Ford government could start removing bike lanes “in the coming weeks” The question remains could the removals start before the April 16 court challenge?

Last fall, it was originally reported 500 metres of Bloor and 400 metres of Yonge would be targeted for removal. While it’s unknown which sections would make up the 1.5 kilometres cited by Stantec, I could see this include The Kingsway in Etobicoke given the opposition there including last month’s lawsuit from over 40 businesses in the area.

Despite the recent setbacks such as Doug Ford’s re-election and the injunction denial, we need to keep our pedals to the metal. The Ford government has been forced to back down before on the Greenbelt (and other matters) and we need to ensure the same happens for safe streets.

I’ll close off with the latest Bike Talk episode – featuring Toronto’s Madeleine Bonsma-Fisher – which shows the bikelash is also happening south of the border with the Trump administration threatening to scrap federal funding for bike lanes and other green infrastructure.

For those who want a family friendly version of Critical Mass, a Kidical Mass ride will be held on Saturday, April 5. Meet 1:45 PM at Queen's Park south lawn.