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Laid out in careful rows, 616 candles glowed in front of the Legislative Assembly of Ontario on Sunday evening, each one representing a person killed by traffic violence in 2023, which is the most recent year that statistics are available.
Following speeches from advocates for traffic safety precautions -- such as speed cameras or bike lanes -- and the friends of traffic violence victims, a few dozen community members marched around Queen's Park while carrying candles and photos of victims.
The vigil was organized by Friends and Families for Safe Streets (FFSS), a coalition of collision survivors pushing for improved road design and legislation, while working to change public attitudes toward traffic.
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"Each candle represents a person robbed of their future, a family robbed of their loved ones, an empty spot at the table, the devastated, grieving family suffering with pain and loss beyond what I can put into words," FFSS spokesperson Jess Spieker said. "Their loved one's life mattered, and we will never stop fighting because the right thing to do is to save lives."
The event was held on the south lawn of Queen's Park for the second consecutive year, as a statement against the Ontario government's "ongoing war on road safety," Spieker said. It was also held on the International Day of Remembrance for Road Traffic Victims.
During the ceremony, Spieker read out the names and ages of people who had been killed in Ontario collisions -- as drivers, cyclists and pedestrians -- from an incomplete list she compiled. It took her ten minutes.
"I'm doing as much as I can so that nobody else has to suffer," she told the Star.
Spieker was hit by the driver of an SUV while biking along Bathurst Street, south of Eglinton Avenue, in 2015. She suffered a brain injury and a broken spine, which later caused a blood clot that nearly killed her. Since then, she has been involved with FFSS.
"Killing our speed safety camera program and making it nearly impossible to build lifesaving complete streets anywhere in the province is a guaranteed death sentence for more Ontarians. The fact that the government would do this instead of trying to save lives is utterly maddening in the face of that much human carnage and devastation," Spieker said.
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As dusk fell over the candlelight ceremony, Spieker was joined by Vanessa Gentile, a close friend of Alex Amaro, who was killed while biking home from Dufferin Mall in 2020.
"The pain will never cease, but I am here to challenge Bill 60 in honour of my best friend. Torontonians and all humans deserve to get home safely to their loved ones," she said. The proposed piece of legislation would constrain municipalities' autonomy to add new bike lanes if passed.
Alex Bonenfant, a frequent cyclist from Oakville, said he came to the vigil after an eight-year-old girl was struck and killed in the city by a driver whose SUV jumped the curb this past week.
"You would expect the government would try and make our streets more safe, but it seems like the opposite is happening," he said.
Bonenfant is hoping the provincial government will "finally understand" why road safety needs to be prioritized through legislative action.
"There is no solution to traffic except viable alternatives to driving," he said.
In addition to the hundreds of traffic fatalities, there are thousands of people living with life-altering injuries from collisions, Spieker said.
"All road violence is preventable and safety measures that have been implemented thus far, like pedestrian streets, bike lanes or speed cameras, are intended to keep people alive and unharmed," she said. "It's not an attack on motorists, it's about who lives and dies on our streets."