No one hates speed cameras more than Doug Ford
And yet, he’s the one who paved the way for their installation
Toronto vandals have declared war on speed cameras. Last week, police confirmed that three more cameras had been dismembered, bringing the September total to twenty—including sixteen in a single night. The camera at Parkside Drive, the site of a 2021 pile-up that killed two people, has been cut down seven times in 10 months. Police have yet to identify the person or persons responsible, although we do have some grainy footage, a suspected weapon—something called a reciprocating saw—and a nickname: the Parkside Vandaliers.
So why are speed cameras suddenly such a hot topic?
Earlier this year, the City of Toronto doubled its fleet of cameras from 75 to 150. The change was made in response to the role of speeding in an alarming number of pedestrian and cyclist deaths as well as car-on-car collisions. More recently, there has been an uptick in fist-shaking car owners getting tickets in the mail.
Now, Doug Ford is joining the kvetch sesh, casting speed cams as yet another example of leftist policy threatening the commutes of hard-working, everyday Ontarian drivers. (Maybe the guy has to find a new nemesis now that his war on bike lanes has proven an embarrassing failure.) And yes, it was the Ford government that amended provincial policy to allow these cams in the first place back in 2019. At the time, the government considered them a public safety measure; now, the premier says they’re “nothing but a tax grab”—one he is planning to get rid of.
Ford’s new fight is playing out as the Ontario Association of Chiefs of Police are praising the cameras’ effectiveness: “Employing ASE (automated speed enforcement) tools has been proven to reduce speeding, change driver behaviour, and make our roads safer for everyone—drivers, cyclists, pedestrians, and especially children and other vulnerable road users,” the organization said in a statement last week.
A July 2025 study by SickKids and TMU showed that the cameras led to speed reductions of 45 per cent in school zones and other safety priority areas. And while they may be a “tax grab,” having already added $45 million to the public coffer in 2025, that money is being spent on other road safety initiatives. Plus, the time saved by replacing human enforcement has freed up officers to attend to other high-priority issues (of which Ontario has a few).
Meanwhile, the Parkside Vandaliers remain at large. On an unrelated note, does anyone know if Ford owns a reciprocating saw?
Courtney Shea is a freelance journalist in Toronto. She started her career as an intern at Toronto Life and continues to contribute frequently to the publication, including her 2022 National Magazine Award–winning feature, “The Death Cheaters,” her regular Q&As and her recent investigation into whether Taylor Swift hung out at a Toronto dive bar (she did not). Courtney was a producer and writer on the 2022 documentary The Talented Mr. Rosenberg, based on her 2014 Toronto Life magazine feature “The Yorkville Swindler.”
