‘I don’t want to be in this province anymore’: Cyclists rally against PCs’ Bill 212

Brampton resident Sonia Maset was six years old when she first started biking, often referring to her cycle as her “baby.” She has biked everywhere for as long as she can remember.

When she heard about legislation put forward by the PC government threatening the rights and safety of cyclists, she knew she had to do something.

On a crisp, cold, sunny morning last Saturday, January 25, Maset joined residents and cycling advocates from Brampton and Toronto at the downtown Brampton GO parking lot to ride and rally outside Minister of Transportation Prabmeet Sarkaria’s constituency office.

“When I heard Minister Sarkaria was proposing this law, I thought about all the people who have died and those who tell me they’re too afraid to ride on our streets because they don’t want to get hit by a car. They just keep driving instead, and that’s not the future we want.”

Sonia Maset addressing advocates in Brampton before kicking off a bike rally.

(Anushka Yadav/The Pointer)

“I also thought about international students and newcomers who rely on biking but don’t have permanent status and are afraid to speak out. I hope to represent their voices too.”

As a Bike Brampton advocate, and the Program Manager of Different Spokes Brampton & Caledon Bike Hub at Punjabi Community Health Services since 2021, Maset has seen how cycling transforms lives. “People use bikes as a tool to help lift themselves up,” she said, noting that 65 percent of membership at the community bike hub in downtown Brampton consists of international students relying on daily cycling.

“It’s great for your body, your mind, your community, the environment, and your pocket,” she said.

Brampton resident Jasdeep Singh Pathal sporting a poster on his back.

(Anushka Yadav/The Pointer) 

Among those Maset often sees volunteering at the Bike Hub is Brampton resident Jasdeep Singh Pathal, who biked in India before retiring and now enjoys contributing to the local community. Pathal finds it surprising that such laws are being introduced, especially when governments at all levels are “fighting to reduce carbon emissions, (and) cyclists help them with that.”

Transportation has long been one of Canada's top contributors to greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, and the situation in Ontario is no different.

Transportation has consistently been the second-largest contributor to greenhouse gas emissions in Canada.

(2021 National Inventory Report)

In 2022, Ontario was the second-largest emitter of greenhouse gases (GHG) in Canada, releasing 157 megatonnes of carbon dioxide—a 5.7 percent increase from 2020—with 40.9 percent of the province’s total emissions coming from road transportation.

During the pandemic, restrictions led to a sharp drop in commuting, bringing Ontario’s emissions to their lowest level since 1990. However, as commuting and road transportation rebounded, emissions rose again, returning to pre-pandemic levels.

Similarly, carbon emissions in the Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area (GTHA) increased by 2 percent in 2023, rising from 53.5 million tonnes in 2022 to 54.5 million tonnes, surpassing pre-pandemic levels, according to The 2023 Carbon Emissions Inventory by The Atmospheric Fund.

The Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area (GTHA) is a key contributor to the province’s emissions, accounting for nearly half of the total, with the Region of Peel being the second-largest emitter after Toronto, contributing 11.5 million tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent. 

Buildings and transportation together represent over 83 percent of emissions in the region, with transportation emissions increasing by an average of 5 percent across municipalities in Peel.

Given these trends, Ontario's Climate Change Strategy has set an ambitious goal to reduce GHG emissions by 80 percent below 1990 levels by 2050.

In Peel, efforts are being made to reduce GHG emissions to 45 percent below 2010 levels by 2030, but achieving a more sustainable future will require transformative changes, particularly in the road transportation sector.

Cycling in the Netherlands offers a global example of how emissions could be reduced. A study from the University of Southern Denmark suggests that if people worldwide cycled as much as the average Dutch person, who bikes 2.6 kilometers daily, global carbon emissions could drop by 686 million tonnes annually, exceeding the total carbon footprint of Canada, the UK, Australia and Saudi Arabia combined.

Cyclists rode to Brampton PC MPP Charmaine Williams’ constituency office to protest her support of the anti-cycling legislation.

“People talk about driving as if it’s a freedom machine, and it’s not, it’s an addiction. Cycling is freedom, cycling is like flight. I’ve cycled in 20 different countries and I just love bicycling. I can eat food, and that is the energy I need to make a trip,” Toronto resident, biking enthusiast and retired elementary school teacher James Snetsinger told The Pointer.

However, Snetsinger emphasized that the lack of “sustainable transportation infrastructure” is the biggest obstacle. 

Maset echoes his concerns: “It’s (biking) dangerous. I talk to people every day who have had their bikes stolen or survived near-misses because our streets aren't designed for people, but for cars to get through as quickly as possible. And it doesn't have to be like that.”

Among the advocacy groups at the rally was Cycle Toronto, which launched a legal challenge against Bill 212, calling it “Ontario’s anti-bike lane law,” in December 2024. 

The challenge, filed under Section 7 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, argues that the bill’s mandate to remove bike lanes in Toronto puts lives at risk, and is seeking an immediate injunction to block the removal of bike lanes on key routes including Bloor Street, University Avenue, and Yonge Street.

Someone who frequently rides Toronto’s streets and has been instrumental in placing ghost bikes throughout the GTA is Jun Nogami, a member of Advocacy for Respect for Cyclists, who told The Pointer, “seven cyclists have been killed in Toronto in 2024, and that’s unfortunately a record. And we’ve seen more and more deaths in the outer suburbs, we’ve placed ghost bikes in Brampton, in Oakville. This has got to stop, something needs to be done.”

The group chained a ghost bike across from Prabmeet Sarkaria’s office.

(David Laing)

The fast-tracked Bill 212, which passed at Queen’s Park in November, includes provisions under the Highway Traffic Act regarding bicycle lanes: “municipalities are required, in certain circumstances, to obtain the Minister’s approval before constructing bicycle lanes or to provide the Minister with information relating to existing bicycle lanes.”

The legislation also requires municipalities to provide data on existing bike lanes, which could be removed, the province said in a statement.

Nogami decries this provision, stating, “That’s a complete overreach into municipal jurisdiction.”

Snetsinger says he is tired of a government that, in his view, caters only to drivers—an easy group to please with promises of “new highways to get re-elected.”

In the latest move to justify building new highways at the environment’s expense, the Ontario government recently bumped up the cost of gridlock to the province’s economy from $11 billion to $56 billion per year, citing a new report from the Canadian Centre for Economic Analysis.

“Our government has heard loud and clear from residents and businesses about the problems with gridlock. The failed approach of installing bike lanes without a second thought for drivers or local businesses is not working,” said Prabmeet Sarkaria, Minister of Transportation. “By freeing up some of Toronto’s most important roads, we’re bringing common sense back to municipal planning.”

As The Pointer previously reported, the PC government often refers to the worst-case scenario. The $11 billion figure comes from a 2013 C.D. Howe Institute study, which estimated that congestion in the GTHA costs about $6 billion a year, mainly due to the value of time spent commuting on clogged roads.

The government argues that highways are necessary to address congestion in the GTA, using the outdated $11 billion figure. This total also includes an additional $5 billion to account for ancillary costs like lost wages, which the report estimates could range from $1.5 billion to $5 billion.

But there might be a flaw in how these costs are calculated. 

“What if, instead of talking about how long we wait in our cars in traffic, we talked about how long we wait in line for a coffee…and what if we started to think about that as wasted time, as lost productivity?,” Shauna Brail, Associate Professor, Director of the Institute for Management & Innovation (IMI), University of Toronto Mississauga had told The Pointer in an interview while referring to a 2018 study that estimated the total value of time lost to “cappuccino congestion” costing consumers in the USA more than $4 billion annually.

On January 28, the province announced it has hired an engineering firm to handle the design work as it moves forward with plans to reinstate vehicle lanes on Bloor Street West, Yonge Street, and University Avenue.

(Prabmeet Sarkaria/X)

“That’s not the future I want for Toronto. I just want to ride my bike safely, without the fear of being killed,” he said.

Shortly after the announcement, Ontario Premier Doug Ford confirmed that the Honourable Edith Dumont, Lieutenant Governor of Ontario, had accepted his recommendation to issue a proclamation dissolving the 43rd Parliament of Ontario, with the dissolution taking effect at 4 p.m. on January 28.

As Ford’s moves his pawns to get re-elected, Snetsinger can’t help but voice his growing disillusionment as Ontarians prepare to head to polling stations on February 27. 

“I don’t know if I should say if I’m very cynical or he’s (Doug Ford) behaving in a very cynical way. It’s been obvious that Trump was going to sweep the United States, he’s had this plan in his back pocket ready to bring it out because he just wants to have a more secure mandate,” he said.
 

On January 24, days before calling the early election, Doug Ford announced plans to extend the Hurontario LRT into downtown Brampton, without committing any funding.

(Doug Ford/X)

“There’s a rising number of people who are becoming aware of how fraudulent his leadership is, how ineffective he is in doing real governance, and how the decisions he’s making are benefitting an inner circle of people and that’s all at the expense of people who really can’t afford to have their lives made more difficult. I’m increasingly feeling like I don’t want to be in this province anymore.”

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