Rachel Chernos Lin told us why she Zoomed into city council while actively driving a car
Some found it hypocritical that the city councillor chose to talk about road safety while operating a moving vehicle
A Toronto city councillor caused a stir last week when she attended a city council meeting to discuss road safety—while actively driving her car.
As Councillor Rachel Chernos Lin, who represents Don Valley West, sat behind the steering wheel of a moving vehicle, she chimed in to ask about funding for crossing guards, before looking straight into the camera at the exact moment she emphasized the importance of pedestrian safety. Taking hands-free voice calls from the car is fine if you can talk and drive without losing your focus, but the video recording shows the councillor’s gaze moving between the road and down to where her phone was perched.
Related: Toronto traffic fatalities have increased 44 per cent since 2024
“It seems insane to me that our councillors are Zooming into council meetings while driving around the city. This is textbook distracted driving!” said one Reddit user. “How can they not set aside the time to be there in-person, or at least Zoom in from the office, or God forbid, park their car safely first??”
Councillor Chernos Lin told Toronto Life that she did eventually park. “While in transit to my daughter’s graduation shortly before lunch break, I was called on to ask a question and participated using hands-free technology while driving,” she told us by email. “Ultimately, I parked to have the conversation. I rejoined council in-person immediately after the ceremony.”
At least she wasn’t reading paperwork while speeding down the Gardiner?
Related: Toronto’s chief congestion officer says World Cup traffic hasn’t been so bad
Carly Lewis is a journalist whose work has appeared in the New York Times and the New York Times Magazine, Vanity Fair, Wired, Interview Magazine, Pitchfork, Elle, and Maclean’s, where she is a contributing editor. Her work has been recognized by the National Magazine Awards and the Digital Publishing Awards. She reports on city life, culture—including what people do online—politics, art and crime. She received the Dave Greber Freelance Writers Award for “The Murder of Ashley Wadsworth,” an investigative feature about a Canadian teenager who was killed by a man she met on social media, published by Maclean’s.
