The Ontario government’s plan to remove bike lanes in Toronto had its day in court on Tuesday. CBC’s Lane Harrison has what you need to know.
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NewsTranscript
00:00A group of cyclists took the province to court today to make sure this keeps happening.
00:06Arguing against plans to remove the Bloor, Yonge and University bike lanes.
00:10A plan the province says is needed to improve car traffic.
00:14Something its opponents say it knows won't happen, according to internal ministry documents
00:19made public in court today.
00:21Their documents were entirely consistent in our view with the case that we were putting
00:26forward, which was that removal of protected bike lanes, these protected bike lanes is
00:32going to result in a very significant increase in collisions and injuries as a result.
00:39And as much as the province says otherwise, that's not what their documents say.
00:46It's not what their expert says.
00:48Cycle Toronto, including the non-profit's executive director, who was injured in an
00:52unprotected bike lane, is leading the challenge against the plan.
00:56Saying it violates people's right to life by making roads more dangerous for cyclists.
01:01And saying it's an arbitrary decision that won't improve congestion.
01:05That legal challenge will be heard in full on April 16th, but the province has said work
01:11to remove the bike lanes could start later this month.
01:14So today the cyclists were in court arguing for an injunction to ensure that no work happens
01:20until their challenge gets its day in court.
01:24And it was a popular hearing with so many people in attendance today that they had to
01:29open an overflow room for people to watch the proceedings.
01:33I think what we're seeing in there, there's a lot of public interest in this.
01:36And even, you know, in terms of this idea of a silent majority, you know, we did have
01:40a provincial election recently and the MPP out in Etobicoke Lakeshore, who based a lot
01:45of her campaign on removing the bike lanes on Bloor, she lost.
01:50The lawyer for the province argued an injunction shouldn't be granted because the entire challenge
01:55will eventually be dismissed.
01:57Saying the charter doesn't provide a right to services from the government and that in
02:00the scope of the charter, issues raised by cyclists, like their daily commutes becoming
02:05longer are trivial.
02:06While disputing evidence that removing bike lanes makes people less safe.
02:11He says the government will present evidence arguing its side, but that will come during
02:16the hearing on the merits of the application.
02:19Now it's up to a judge alone to make a decision on the injunction application that was heard
02:24today.
02:25Though when that decision will come isn't exactly clear.
02:29Lane Harrison, CBC News, Toronto.