Opinion: Cancel culture comes to bicycling

It’s not about the bike lanes, or who’s right or wrong. I ride my bike and drive my car thousands of kilometers each year, and I’ve been frightened by the habits of both groups, myself included. As a cycling and active transportation advocate for years, I’ve heard most all of the arguments in favour of more cycling and bike lanes, and read the data. I’ve also listened intently to frustrated drivers as our cities and towns become more congested.

This time though, in Ontario, there is no bike lane debate – this is a story of cancel culture.

The manner in which the current provincial government is attempting to eliminate bike lanes is an example of how cancel culture is creeping insidiously into our lives and systematically destroying dialogue, mutual understanding and factual decision making. It’s about choosing sides, calculating the votes to be won or lost, and dismissing those in the other camp.

Cancel the mandate of local municipalities to make local decisions that impact local residents. (There is simply no single “best practice” that will serve everyone in Ontario.)

Cancel the right of each community’s residents to work together and decide how they want their future to evolve – car-centric or health and lifestyle first.

Cancel the aspirations of all those who have chosen for environmental, expediency (yes, it’s faster to ride than drive many short urban distances) or exercise-related reasons to commute to work or school or shopping. Ditto for those forced by their economic situation to commute by bike.

Cancel those with physical or mental limitations that deny them a driver's license, but safely rely on trikes or e-trikes to live their lives. You simply don’t matter.

Cancel those whose incomes are based on bicycle tourism, whether they are the employees or the entrepreneurs who offer Ontarians and cyclists from around the world a chance to discover our beautiful province in a natural way, while leaving their tourism dollars behind.

Cancel those that depend on recreational cycling, alone with their thoughts to chill and reset after a stressful day; or in groups to keep their social lives vibrant and healthy. Who cares about your mental health?

Cancel those that believe every small action one can take to mitigate carbon dioxide emissions will help provide our kids a better environment in the future.

We must resist this divisive, power-driven treachery

Has Doug Ford learned that many of us hold our core beliefs dearly, and consequently he finds it easiest to simply cancel those of us that may be in his way? Truth and reason have gone out the window. Fifty-percent-plus-one vote is all that’s needed, so why waste time on discussion and compromise with those unlikely to vote for him? Better yet, why not vilify them too?

We can easily “unfriend” someone whose recent hairstyle or rant we don’t like, or who no longer offers us advantage or benefit. There’s no need to interact with them, listen to them or learn from them; we can simply cancel them. This may work on social media, but we are on a slippery slope when we share a country, city, or community with others, yet refuse to accept their existence when we disagree.

Years of cycling around the world, be it North Carolina or North Africa, has convinced me that one-on-one, face-to-face, the huge majority of people are caring, welcoming and generous. We are witnessing the devastation that “otherism” and cancel culture are causing around the world, and we must resist this divisive, power-driven treachery.

Voting knowledgeably for those who truly have the best interests of every citizen at heart will help, but our future is molded on our sidewalks, across our backyard hedges, and in the elevators of our high-rises. If we don’t know our neighbours—smile and joke with them, and learn of their problems and concerns—how can we work together? We may decide to share opinion or values, or adopt the “no politics-no religion” approach that served our parents and grandparents so well by discussing the weather and sports indefinitely; but we will know each other better, and value our commonality.

We will then recognize when a concept as simple as bike lanes is politically engineered to unnecessarily divide us, and call bullshit, as the devastated students at Parkland High School did almost seven years ago to politicians who had done nothing to stop the proliferation of gun violence.

This non-debate isn’t simply about bike lanes. It’s about how we choose to deal with each other, and accept that everyone whose actions are within the laws of our country has a right to their opinions and to be heard. Alienation and isolation benefit no one.

It’s time to recognize that our balanced lives are being threatened, and the responsibility is ours.