The reality is that politicians in Ontario kill people. There may not be a direct line of bread crumbs leading from a disastrous policy to a deadly result and this is why many citizens do not make that connection.
The Ford government in Ontario prohibited automated speed enforcement in November, 2025. Doug Ford claimed that the use of speed cameras was a “cash grab” by Ontario’s municipalities and this resonated well with many motorists who were charged with speeding. In fact Ford’s comments might not have been far from the truth as municipalities entered into relationships with private firms which owned the speed cameras and money was made by both the municipalities and those private firms. And if the threshold for speeding was kept at just barely over the speed limit a lot of average citizens could be caught. And this meant a lot of money paid to both the municipalities and the private firms. And there was no accountability for such actions as municipalities could do whatever they wanted. And in the same way there has been no accountability in the Ford government when they removed speed cameras altogether. The result is that average citizens were victimized by their municipal politicians and then they were victimized again by the Ford government. At no point was there a thought put to protecting the public.
A few months after speed cameras were removed a number of news media articles began popping up demonstrating that speeding was increasing. Parkside Drive in Toronto was a particularly thorny issue as speed cameras continued to be vandalized by persons unknown and police were never able to capture the perpetrators. Then, in the spring of 2026 news media began reporting that speeding along Parkside Drive “…surged more than 200 percent following the Ford government’s removal of its automated speed enforcement program”. A report discussed in June of 2026 also showed that in 101 of the 104 locations examined in Toronto operating speeds increased after speed cameras were removed. Then again in September of 2026 it was reported that the number of vehicles travelling at least 20 km/h above the posted speed on Parkside Drive rose by more than 500% compared to the previous year when speed cameras were still operating.
However this was not just a Toronto phenomenon. In the City of Ottawa for example, City Staff reported that speeding was up in school zones after photo radar cameras were removed.
After decades of detailed analysis of individual collisions Gorski Consulting recognizes that how and why persons are injured and killed in transportation incidents is complicated by the many factors that come into play. And speed is only one of those many factors. In our experience those factors were encapsulated by researchers many years ago by the term “HVE”: the Human, the Vehicle, and the Environment. However, speed in not an insignificant factor. Regrettably, politicians in Ontario have placed its citizens in more dangerous conditions because of their policies and their refusal to be transparent with the public about their decisions and what are likely to be the results of those decisions. Current political policy in Ontario is a like a runaway railway train that is difficult for any individual or group to control or stop.
You must be logged in to post a comment.