On Friday, the Ontario Court of Appeal ruled that there was no Charter right to bike lanes — and delivered an utter spanking to the judge below their rank who said otherwise.
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who → rule → rank
Not only was it a victory for those who prefer car to bike, it was a victory for democracy.
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it → prefer → democracy
Before the case was overturned, it stood for the principle that elected policymakers had to submit to “expert” evidence on matters of mere traffic planning to avoid breaching the Charter rights of the masses.
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policymakers → overturn → masses
Justice Paul Schabas of the Ontario Superior Court arrived at this conclusion last year in hearing out the advocacy group Cycle Toronto, which had complained about the Ontario government’s plan to remove a bike lane along a major thoroughfare downtown.
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which → arrive → thoroughfare
While there wasn’t a positive duty on governments to create bike lanes, went the Schabas’ logic, there was a duty to justify the removal of any existing bike lane with evidence satisfactory to the court.
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logic → be → court
His scheme entombed all roads and traffic policy in thick constitutional armour.
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scheme → entomb → armour
Cycle Toronto’s central expert witness, engineering professor Shoshanna Saxe of the University of Toronto, was key in convincing Schabas that the potential harm caused to cyclists by removing the bike lanes was so severe that it constituted a violation of Canadians’ Charter rights.
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it → convince → rights
On the other side of the equation was the government, which did not produce its own math on how much harm the bike lane removal would cause and to whom.
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removal → produce → whom
Schabas concluded — erroneously — that he had no choice but to give Toronto’s bike lanes the armour of constitutional protection.
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he → conclude → protection
The appeal court above was not so easily fooled.
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court → fool → ?
Writing for the three-judge court, Justice Grant Huscroft issued a firm reminder that “Judicial review under the Charter is not an occasion for courts to comment on or critique policy or political decisions.”
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courts → write → decisions
He said that Schabas further erred by binding present governments to the policies of past governments.
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Schabas → say → governments
It was an example of the system working as intended.
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system → work → ?
In examining the cyclists’ pleas with a magnifying glass, Schabas lost sight of his own role in the bigger picture and was corrected for it.
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Schabas → examine → it
And there will be knock-on effects elsewhere: Alberta is preparing legislation that will give the provincial government a framework to order the removal of nuisance city bike lanes.
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that → knock → lanes
The Schabas ruling was certain to be used as ammunition for cyclist advocates out west; the Schabas takedown, which will be far more persuasive to the courts, is a firm defence to bike lane removal.
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which → use → removal
The means by which the Toronto cyclists got their initial victory in court are still cause for concern, however.
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cyclists → get → concern
Schabas relied heavily on the cyclists’ expert witness, Saxe, in trying to understand traffic congestion.
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Schabas → rely → congestion
Saxe’s view was that “investing in cycling infrastructure is one of the most powerful tools available to reduce congestion,” while removing it would make congestion worse long-term.
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congestion → invest → it
She was a proponent of a theory called “induced demand,” which asserts that building more car capacity creates more drivers.
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building → call → drivers
Induced demand is the grand unifying theory of urbanists, who usually believe in turn that removing car lanes is a simple way of reducing drivers.
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removing → induce → drivers
Commuters, goes the idea, will naturally switch to bikes and buses if car infrastructure is taken away.
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infrastructure → go → bikes
These people do not take into account the fact that bikes are particularly vulnerable to theft.
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bikes → take → theft
Nor do they think too hard about winter.
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they → think → winter
Nor do they dwell much on the fact that few people want to spend two hours on buses full of riff-raff to get to work.
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people → dwell → work
And perhaps most critically, they ignore the fact that North America has more space and money than the cycling paradise of Europe, which drives a natural tendency towards car infrastructure.
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which → ignore → infrastructure
Saxe’s day job is to promote exactly those kinds of urbanist policy stances.
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job → promote → stances
In 2020, she was made a Canada Research Chair in Sustainable Infrastructure.
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she → make → Infrastructure
This is a federally funded position that comes with money and prestige.
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that → fund → money
The chairs have been around for decades at this point, but within the last 10 years the Liberals have repurposed the program as a vessel for diversity hiring in academia.
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Liberals → repurpose → academia
The Liberals have also infused the program with funding to create a multitude of prestigious postings on topics that just so happen to advance the government agenda.
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that → infuse → agenda
There are still meritorious academics studying serious topics working as Canada Research Chairs, but there are many others who didn’t have to fully compete for their roles thanks to diversity quotas, and whose work focuses on “Sustainability Governance and Innovation,” “Citizenship, Social Justice and Ethno-Racialization,” “Inclusivity and Active Ageing,” “Reimagining Capitalism,” “Critical Disability Studies,” “History of Health and Social Justice,” “Gender, Race, and Inclusive Politics,” and “Urban Sexualities.”
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work → be → Health
It was during the bike lanes court battle that we saw the precise purpose of dumping money into bogus new frontiers in the Canada Research Chairs program.
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we → see → program
Progressive policy now has a front line of full-time defenders with the prestige of academia and the punch of a well-funded Liberal think tank.
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policy → have → tank
Saxe’s golden aura of an expert could be used to tactically blind the court, and it worked on Schabas.
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it → use → Schabas
They appear as non-partisan experts advancing the objectively correct position on contentious subjects — whether in media, the academic world, or in court.
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They → appear → court
Their expert status gives allied decision-makers the cover needed to side with whatever the progressive side wants.
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side → give → whatever
It happens all the time.
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It → happen → ?
Earlier this year, for example, Federal Court Justice Avvy Yao-Yao Go ruled in favour of a group of RCMP officers who alleged they were victims of systemic racism on thin evidence.
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they → rule → evidence
They had lost at the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal, but Go decided that they deserved a redo, in part because the tribunal didn’t give enough weight to the RCMP officers’ expert witness, Kanika Samuels-Wortley.
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tribunal → lose → witness
…and 9 more, not listed.
The Aporia
