The World Day of Remembrance for Road Traffic Victims is held on the third Sunday in November. Last year’s event drew a large turnout of 200 to 300 people because of Bill 212 and six cyclists killed in Toronto that year. However, this year’s was more subdued with about 40 people even with Bills 56 and 60 prompting further attacks on road safety, though the colder temperatures didn’t help. Since Jun was unable to make it, I covered the event in his absence.
On the way over, I noticed the cyclist detour on Queen’s Park Crescent through the construction zone was well done. Something Toronto must be more consistent with.
The crowd by the time I got to Queen’s Park.
For this year’s event, 616 candles were placed to mark the number of people killed on Ontario’s roads in 2023 given the 2024 data was still not available.
Several media outlets were present including the Toronto Star and CBC News. Here’s Arthur being interviewed by a CBC reporter.
Some of the attendees held these posters to honour those who were killed on our streets.
Jess Spieker of FFSS – which organizes this event every year in Toronto – was the MC for this evening. In addition to the 616 deaths, she mentioned over 36,000 people were injured in 2023 and it would have cost $23,000 to get enough candles for all of these victims. She also remarked how it’s not normal that there are adults wanting to make roads more dangerous and that there’s a need to value human life over corporate lobbying and driver convenience.
Vanessa Gentile was a friend of Alex Amaro who was killed on Dufferin Street in front of Dufferin Mall on December 2, 2020; almost five years ago to this day. She remarked how Bill 60 would ban the idea of putting in bike lanes on Dufferin and that everyone deserves to get home safely.
Tom DeVito recently started Parents Against Speeding and is the father of a three-year-old. On Friday – the day the speed camera ban took effect through Bill 56 – he and Jess walked the equivalent of a marathon by walking the block with Doug Ford’s constituency office 101 times. The office was abandoned on that day when they tried to deliver the over 8,500 signatures which he said meant Premier Ford knows it’s a losing battle by ramming the speed camera ban through.
A crowd shot while Tom was speaking; after which someone shouted “Doug Ford, why do you hate our children?”
Geoff Bercarich of ARC has been putting up ghost bikes for 25 years – thank you Geoff – and was holding a poster for Nikita in Newmarket. He said he can only do so much including talking to people in power such as Doug Ford and the late Rob Ford, as well as continuing to paint bicycles and build coalitions. He stressed the need to fight for speed cameras and technology, and that we can’t rely on Queen’s Park to do it for us.
Jess then invited those who lost their loved ones to come up (which nobody did). She then read the annual list of road traffic victims – which keeps getting longer every year – and held a moment of silence.
The event wrapped up with a candlelit walk around Queen’s Park. The photos from my phone weren’t that great, so here are a couple of the better ones.
Thanks Jess of FFSS for putting together this event, as well as to Vanessa, Tom, and Geoff for speaking. As Jess mentioned at the end, we must keep fighting until there is no more road violence.
Here's some media coverage courtesy of the Toronto Star.
This Sunday’s event wasn’t the only one which involved protesting against Queen’s Park. A Bill 60 Protest Ride took place on Thursday from Bloor and Spadina to the MTO office on Bay Street which 30 people attended. You can read Jun N’s recap here, while I shared a few photos on Bluesky.
Thanks to the 30 to 40 people who joined us for today's Bill 60 protest ride from Bloor and Spadina to the MTO office on Bay Street. Some people tried to go up to deliver Sarkaria's own report but security wouldn't let them in. #BikeTO #TOpoli #ONpoli #VisionZero
— Robert Zaichkowski (@rzaichkowski.bsky.social) November 13, 2025 at 9:01 AM
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