In this Friday rant, Stephen LeDrew reacts to the Ontario Court of Appeal overturning a lower-court decision involving Toronto bike lanes — and says the ruling is about much more than cycling.
LeDrew argues that the original decision crossed the line between law and politics by treating bike-lane policy as a Charter issue. He says the Court of Appeal delivered an important reminder: elected governments make policy, while judges are there to interpret and apply the law.
The ruling, in LeDrew’s view, is a major pushback against judicial activism and the growing tendency of courts to substitute their own policy preferences for those of elected legislatures.
This is a rant about bike lanes, the Charter, judicial restraint and why the rule of law depends on judges knowing where their role ends.
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