{"id":213098,"date":"2025-09-09T15:07:09","date_gmt":"2025-09-09T15:07:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/213098\/"},"modified":"2025-09-09T15:07:09","modified_gmt":"2025-09-09T15:07:09","slug":"ontario-premier-doug-ford-warns-municipalities-to-get-rid-of-speed-cameras","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/213098\/","title":{"rendered":"Ontario Premier Doug Ford warns municipalities to get rid of speed cameras"},"content":{"rendered":"

Chopper 24 was over O’Connor Dr. near Coxwell Ave. where the camera that is supposed to catch speeders is lying on the ground. <\/p>\n

Premier Doug Ford says he plans to take matters into his own hands if Ontario municipalities don\u2019t \u201cget rid of the speed cameras\u201d in short order. <\/p>\n

Ford made the comments while speaking to reporters at a Toronto Region Board of Trade event on Tuesday morning. <\/p>\n

\u201cThey should take out those cameras, all of them,\u201d Ford said. \u201cThis is nothing but a tax grab.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ford\u2019s comments come after speed cameras across Toronto have repeatedly been cut down, including several overnight. <\/p>\n

Just days ago, a speed camera on Parkside Drive, one of Toronto\u2019s most frequently vandalized speed cameras, was chopped down for the seventh time<\/a> in less than a year.<\/p>\n

On Tuesday morning, images captured by CP24 showed at least three other cameras in Toronto had been cut down overnight, including one near Coxwell Avenue and O\u2019Connor Drive, another on Lake Shore Boulevard, between Woodbine and Coxwell avenues, and a third near Dundas and Bathurst streets. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe are aware that multiple Automated Speed Enforcement (ASE) cameras were vandalized overnight. Vandalism is a criminal offence and anyone with information is encouraged to contact the Toronto Police Service,\u201d a spokesperson for the City of Toronto said in a written statement to CP24. <\/p>\n

They went on to note that there have been more than 800 incidents of vandalism involving speed cameras reported to the city this year, although most were \u201cminor\u201d incidents, such as graffiti, and did not require the cameras to be taken out of service. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe City of Toronto condemns all vandalism of these speed cameras. Damaging these devices allows dangerous speeding to continue and undermines the safety of vulnerable road users, as all ASE devices are located in Community Safety Zones such as near schools, playgrounds and hospitals,\u201d the statement continued. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe continue to work with our vendor and the Toronto Police Service on solutions to prevent future incidents of vandalism of ASE devices.\u201d <\/p>\n

\u2018Dead against this\u2019<\/p>\n

Ford condemned the cameras on Tuesday, suggesting that they unfairly target drivers who are travelling over the speed limit by a marginal amount. <\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve driven by speed traps not even close to school areas,\u201d the premier said Tuesday. <\/p>\n

\u201cSome people driving through a neighbourhood and they are five, 10 kilometres over, they are getting nailed. It\u2019s not fair. So, I\u2019m dead against this photo radar that they have.\u201d <\/p>\n

Ford said he hopes more municipalities follow the lead of Vaughan Mayor Steven Del Duca, who scrapped the city\u2019s speed camera program<\/a> following public outcry. <\/p>\n

\u201cHopefully the cities will get rid of them\u2026 or I\u2019m going to help them get rid of them very shortly,\u201d Ford said. <\/p>\n

When asked about the public safety benefit, he said there are better ways to protect the public. <\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m all about public safety. I\u2019m against taxing the death out of people,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

\u201cAll you might as well do is knock on everyone\u2019s door and say, \u2018I\u2019m going to raise your taxes.\u2019\u201d <\/p>\n

He suggested putting up \u201cflashing signs\u201d to encourage people to slow down or to put an officer with a radar gun in areas where drivers are prone to speeding. <\/p>\n

\u201cGet rid of the speed cameras or I\u2019m going to do it for them,\u201d Ford said in a warning to municipalities. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Chopper 24 was over O’Connor Dr. near Coxwell Ave. where the camera that is supposed to catch speeders…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":213099,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[4717,2147,50],"class_list":{"0":"post-213098","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-news","8":"tag-apple-news","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-news"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115174968241872395","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/213098","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=213098"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/213098\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/213099"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=213098"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=213098"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=213098"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}