A News Commentary by Doug Draper with files from CBC
Posted July 30th, 2025 on Niagara At Large
Through all of the damage Ontario Premier Doug Ford and his Conservatives aim to cause to efforts to make our communities safer, healthier and more environmentally friendly and affordable to live and work in, every once in a while we, the people, win.
This July 30th, an Ontario court judge struck down an attempt by the Ford government to remove three key bike lanes in Toronto – a ruling that will hopefully set a precedent for any bike lanes this government is already threatening to say no to in Niagara or any other region of the province.
Ford, whose mid-20th Century, cars-rule mindset can’t seem to wrap that mind around the idea that the best way to solve traffic congestion is to get as many cars as possible off our roads, has tried to argue that bike lanes are causing traffic congestion.
He has vowed to use that ridiculous logic to have his government dictate to municipalities in Niagara and elsewhere across the province where, if anywhere at all, they can put bike lanes on our roads.
In response to that, Ontario Justice Paul Schabas, in his ruling in favour of cyclist groups and other advocated for more environmentally friendly forms of transportation across the province, referred to expert evidence which, according to a CBC news report, ‘establishes that bicycle lanes, and in particular separated or protected bicycle lanes, reduce motor vehicle traffic congestion by providing an alternative method of transportation that is safer for all users of the roads.”
“The evidence shows that restoring lanes for cars will not result in less congestion, as it will induce more people to use cars and therefore any reduction in driving time will be short-lived, if at all, and will lead to more congestion,” the judge added in his decision.
As ridiculous as it is that a court had to point something this fundamental out to the Premier of a major province in Canada, Ford’s Transportation Minister Prabmeet Sarkaria has already said that the government will appeal the court’s decision.
“We were elected by the people of Ontario with a clear mandate to restore lanes of traffic and get drivers moving by moving bike lanes off of major roads to secondary roads,” Ford government spokesperson Dakota Brasier told CBC News.
A clear mandate? What in hell do they mean they were elected by the people with a clear mandate?
Less than half the eligible voters in Ontario even bothered to vote in this past winter’s provincial election and of those who did, less than half of them voted Conservative.
What kind of mandate is that?
And now Ford is going to waste more of our money on lawyers and court time – money that could be spent keeping urgent care centres in Niagara open 24/7, just as one example – trying to reclaim his bid to kill bike lanes.
That along with all of the countless billions of dollars he wants to blow away on building more highways, including twinning the Garden City Skyway crossing the Welland Canal in St. Catharines and building a tunnel under Highway 401 in the GTA – all in the name of reducing traffic congestion.
It is maddening to think that we have to put up with another three and a half years of this.
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Doug Draper, Niagara At Large
To read the full CBC report on this court decision, click on –
Ontario court strikes down Ford government’s plan to remove Toronto bike lanes | CBC News
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