Twelve Days of Bicycles - Two Legal Friends

Among Toronto’s cycling community, there are two prominent lawyers you should get to know. The first is Albert Koehl, who helped start the annual Bells on Bloor rides and was a past Toronto city council candidate. The second is Patrick Brown, whom I interviewed for this post. He is a partner with McLeish Orlando - a Toronto critical injury law firm - and offers legal advice to cyclists and their families involved in bicycle-vehicle collisions.

Patrick Brown at the 2015 Skill Swap (SOURCE: Cycle Toronto)

Twelve Days of Bicycles - A Bike Lane on Bloor Street

With the Christmas season here, it’s time to get out the eggnog and carol books! It also means the end of another exciting year for Toronto’s cycling community. So how can one pay tribute to this vibrant community while in a festive mood? When a fellow advocate (Peter) recently sent me some information on Vision Zero, it gave me an idea. With one of my favourite Christmas carols being “The Twelve Days of Christmas”, I present to you “The Twelve Days of Bicycles” and the first verse … a bike lane on Bloor Street!

Put Down Your (Political) Swords

It’s been a few weeks since the longest election campaign in Canadian history ended. While it left me burnt out and disappointed, given my MP (Peggy Nash) was defeated along with every NDP MP in Toronto and Atlantic Canada, it also means no more elections until 2018. This is a good opportunity to focus away from politics (except for cycling matters, of course) and get myself back in order. Since I will have to work with a Liberal MP now, let’s get some first impressions of the new Liberal government.

When Fear Hijacks Campaigns

When former NDP leader Jack Layton passed away on August 22, 2011, his final words became legend and transcended partisan lines. He called on Canadians to embrace love, hope, and optimism instead of anger, fear, and despair. Fast forward to 2015 and it appears Canadians have forgotten this message, thanks to fear hijacking the current election campaign. Honestly, what happened to this country’s political discourse? It can be attributed to a headdress worn by Muslim women called the niqab.

Bloor Loves Bikes - September 2015 Update

Since Spring 2015, Cycle Toronto's advocates, Bells on Bloor, and various resident associations have been working on a campaign called "Bloor Loves Bikes." This is the latest in a series or campaigns for bike lanes on Bloor Street over the past twenty five years, which also lead to similar campaigns on Danforth Avenue (a.k.a. Danforth Loves Bikes) and eventually, Yonge Street. Given recent developments, this post will discuss what has been accomplished so far, what can be applied to other campaigns, and how you can help make bike lanes on Bloor a reality.

Defining True Progressives

After almost ten years in power, the biggest question of this fall’s election is which party represents the true progressive alternative to Prime Minister Stephen Harper. This resulted in the nastiest campaign to date in which political party leaders are calling each other out on their promises and determining what is true can be difficult. Even within parties, loyalties are being tested such as disgraced Conservative Senator Patrick Brazeau calling for Harper’s defeat[1], Liberals leaving the party over anti-terror Bill C-51, and New Democrats criticizing leader Tom Mulcair’s positions on issues such as pipelines and Palestine.[2] For this blog post, I will discuss past Liberal and NDP records, as well as certain key campaign promises and accusations.

Pursuing the Car-free Lifestyle

While cycle commuting for one day is one thing, doing it for a month is another. For all of July, I did not turn on my car once, though I had to borrow a co-worker’s vehicle for one brief errand. For this post, I discuss some lessons learned from my car-free month, as well as a related film which recently launched.