By Liam Casey

A new Ontario law that allows the removal of three Toronto bike lanes has been found unconstitutional, with a judge saying that doing so would put people at an "increased risk of harm and death."

Justice Paul Schabas of the Ontario Superior Court of Justice found the province's plan to remove bike lanes along Bloor Street, Yonge Street and University Avenue violated the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

The challenge was brought by the advocacy group Cycle Toronto and two individual cyclists — a university student who relies on the Bloor Street bike lane to get to school and a bike delivery driver who uses the lanes daily.

They asked the court to strike down parts of the law that empowered the province to remove the 19 kilometres of protected bike lanes on the three roads. 

"The applicants have established that removal of the target bike lanes will put people at increased risk of harm and death which engages the right to life and security of the person," Schabas wrote in his decision.

"The evidence is clear that restoring a lane of motor vehicle traffic, where it will involve the removal of the protected, or separated, nature of the target bike lanes, will create greater risk to cyclists and to other users of the roads."

Six cyclists were killed in Toronto last year, all on roads that did not have protected bike lanes, court heard.

As part of the same law, Ontario inked in a requirement that municipalities get provincial approval if they want to remove a lane of vehicle traffic in order to install a bicycle lane. 

"This is a full win," said Michael Longfield, executive director of Cycle Toronto in a statement. 

"We won on the facts and on the law. The court accepted our argument that the government’s actions increased the risk of harm to Ontarians, and that doing so without justification breaches our most basic constitutional rights."

Ford has blamed the Bloor Street, Yonge Street and University Avenue bike lanes for contributing to increased traffic in Toronto and vowed to get the city moving again. 

He also made removing the bike lanes a campaign issue during the snap election he called and won in February.

Ford and Toronto Mayor Olivia Chow had been negotiating a compromise for months, with the mayor conveying that she believed there was a solution that would keep the bike lanes and add an extra lane of traffic in each direction on the three roads.

Schabas previously ordered an injunction to keep the government's hands off the bike lanes until he rendered a decision.

The province did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

(C) The Canadian Press