Ford government appeals Superior Court decision on Toronto bike lanes

A cyclist rides in a bike lane on University Avenue in Toronto on Friday, December 13, 2024. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Laura Proctor

The group behind a successful Charter challenge that barred the province from removing bike lanes in Toronto’s downtown core have received notice that the Ontario government is appealing last month’s Superior Court ruling.

CycleTO, the advocacy group that brought forward the challenge, said the notice of appeal was served on Thursday.

“The Charter exists to protect the rights of all Canadians, regardless of the whims of this or any government. We urge Premier Ford to respect the rule of law and the decision of the judiciary,” Michael Longfield, the executive director of Cycle Toronto, said in a statement posted on the group’s website.

Last month, Ontario Superior Court Justice Paul Schabas found that the Ford government’s plan to rip up bike lanes along Bloor Street, Yonge Street and University Avenue was a violation of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

“The applicants have established that removal of the target bike lanes will put people at increased risk of harm and death which engages the right to life and security of the person,” Schabas wrote in his decision.

“The evidence is clear that restoring a lane of motor vehicle traffic, where it will involve the removal of the protected, or separated, nature of the target bike lanes, will create greater risk to cyclists and to other users of the roads.”

The Ford government passed legislation last year to remove sections of bike lanes along the three major downtown roadways in an effort to reduce gridlock in the city.

In the decision, Schabas also said that evidence presented to the province from experts showed that removing bike lanes won’t “achieve the asserted goal” of the law.

The province previously indicated that they planned to appeal the decision and speaking at an unrelated news conference earlier this month, Premier Doug Ford called the ruling “ridiculous.”

“I’ve never seen a decision like this, that a judge overrules the people of Ontario because of ideology — not because of law — ideology, but we knew when they picked this judge where it was going anyway, so it’s not a big surprise,” he told reporters on Aug. 6.

In the notice of appeal, which is posted on CycleTO’s website, the province contends that the court “disregarded” its evidence demonstrating that “travel times increased after the installation of the target bike lanes.” The province argued that the court preferred “unqualified opinion evidence that removing the target bike lanes would not improve congestion generally.”

Dakota Brasier, a spokesperson for Ontario’s Minister of Transportation, confirmed that the appeal had been served.

“We were elected by the people of Ontario with a clear mandate to restore lanes of traffic and move bike lanes off of major roads to secondary roads to get drivers moving. We are delivering on that mandate and have served our appeal to the court,” Brasier wrote in an email to CP24 on Friday.

“We will also continue with the design work necessary to begin removals of bike lanes and get some of our busiest roads moving, as soon as possible.”

With files from The Canadian Press and CTV Toronto’s Phil Tsekouras