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Global News
a day ago
- General
- Global News
‘It's never quite worked properly': Toronto's fading Luminous Veil in need of repairs
Aside from the CN Tower, the Luminous Veil, which spans the Bloor Viaduct, is one of the most recognizable landmarks in Toronto's nighttime skyline, but the public art display isn't functioning the way it was intended to and the lack of dazzling lights on the horizon is prompting many to call for improvements. Unveiled in time for the 2015 Toronto Pan Am Games, the Luminous Veil added hundreds of LED lights that react to changes in wind direction and temperature shifts. On top of the shimmering light displays, the installation adds a public art element to the safety barriers that were installed years prior. But the lights haven't been functioning as intended and a jaunt across the bridge connecting Bloor Street to Danforth Avenue at night reveals several portions sitting in darkness while others twinkle around them. 'It's never quite worked properly because there's always sections of the lights that are out,' said Coun. Paula Fletcher, who has been hearing complaints about the issues for quite some time. Story continues below advertisement This week, Fletcher put forward a motion at the city's Economic and Social Development Committee asking city staff to come up with a solution. Get breaking National news For news impacting Canada and around the world, sign up for breaking news alerts delivered directly to you when they happen. Sign up for breaking National newsletter Sign Up By providing your email address, you have read and agree to Global News' Terms and Conditions and Privacy Policy Fletcher also points out that when the lights were originally installed, there wasn't a mechanism included to report malfunctions. Due to this oversight, the city often doesn't know there are issues unless residents phone 311. 'Let's get this back up and running a hundred per cent and not rely on the public to phone in and say it's not working,' Fletcher said. A Toronto spokesperson told Global News that in 2021, the city entered into a two-year service agreement with a company tasked with maintaining the Luminous Veil. But even with coordinated monitoring, the system continued to experience malfunctions. At the end of the $36,200 contract, the city was told the custom lighting elements were reaching the end of their life cycle and would need to be replaced. 'For years now … panels fade constantly to the point now they're more black panels than illuminated panels,' said Albert Stortchak outside his antique lighting shop on Broadview Avenue. Stortchak, chair of the Broadview Danforth BIA, said its members called in a lot of favours and raised $25,000 to help get the display up and running. He said the city tends to initiate projects with lofty goals and objectives, only to let them decay over time, disappointing those who advocated for them. Story continues below advertisement 'In this case, the luminous part of the veil was a metaphoric and literal light to be shed on the issue of mental illness and suicide prevention, and what message are we sending when we let the lights go out?' he said. Fletcher's motion at committee will now have staff reporting back in September with potential solutions. The Toronto-Danforth councillor said she wants the display back up and running in time for the 2026 FIFA World Cup. Stortchak and his BIA membership want the city to ensure that when sports fans vacate the city this time, the Luminous Veil is properly maintained.
CBC
12-04-2025
- Health
- CBC
Tragedy on DVP sparks calls for more suicide barriers on Toronto's bridges
A horrific event on the Don Valley Parkway last Father's Day has spurred Toronto city councillors to demand a speedier timeline for installation of suicide barriers on the Leaside Bridge. Tali Uditsky tearfully told Wednesday's meeting of the infrastructure and environment committee that her father, Harold Lusthouse, was on his way to meet her for brunch that day in 2024 when someone leapt from the Leaside Bridge and landed on his car on the DVP. The 76-year-old grandfather died in hospital several days later. "I was shocked, devastated, angry and my heart felt like it was going to explode," Uditsky told councillors. "He was stolen away from us ... as a result of the failure of the city to protect its citizens." Plans to install suicide barriers on either side of all major bridges in Toronto have been in the works since 2016, according to Coun. James Pasternak, who spearheaded the effort to have barriers erected on the Leaside Bridge shortly after Uditsky approached him last summer. A feasibility study on that bridge has been underway since then, with councillors getting an update on its progress at Wednesday's meeting. Figures from Toronto police indicate there were 17 suicides or attempted suicides from the Leaside Bridge in 2023, nine in 2024 and none so far in 2025. After Uditsky's emotional deputation, councillors voted unanimously to press staff to speed up the process for installing barriers at the Leaside Bridge. The current plan allows for several years before construction begins, and councillors gave staff until Sept. 26 to come up with a plan to install a temporary suicide barrier. That recommendation goes to council for final approval later this month. Staff said they do not have citywide statistics for suicide deaths at Toronto bridges, but a 2018 report from the city's medical officer of health states that from 2004 to 2015, there were a total of 125 suicide deaths involving bridges in Toronto, for an average of 10 such deaths per year. "Many jurisdictions have erected barriers at bridge locations and found them to be effective in preventing or reducing suicide deaths, with little displacement of suicide deaths to other bridges," the report states. City staff wouldn't say which other bridges in Toronto are being studied as part of their report "given the sensitivity of the topic." However, Pasternak said it's well known that suicide prevention barrier projects are underway at at least two nearby sites — the Glen Road Pedestrian Bridge over Rosedale Valley Road and the Overlea Boulevard Bridge over the DVP. "There's no doubt it's not cheap — it's in the tens of millions of dollars," he said. "I believe it's worth it." Toronto's lone suicide prevention barrier is on the Bloor Street Viaduct. Work was completed on the Luminous Veil, as the $5 million project was nicknamed, in 2003. That bridge had been the second most-used suicide site in North America after San Francisco's Golden Gate Bridge, but after the barrier was installed, suicides dropped from around nine per year to near zero, according to a 2017 University of Toronto study. That study notes that although there was a rise in suicides at other locations after the barriers were installed, in the longer term there was no sustained increase in people jumping from other bridges in the city. A staff report identified seven options for Leaside, but notes that testing still has to be carried out to ensure the bridge can bear the added load of suicide barriers on either side. The city has earmarked $500,000 for the preliminary work, which includes the cost of public consultations, but staff said in their report it could be 2028, or longer, before shovels are in the ground. That's not good enough for Pasternak, who sits on the committee. "Suicide is a moment of despair, a moment of hopelessness, of darkness and futility," he said. "What we want to do is take away that opportunity," Pasternak said. The Leaside bridge has spanned the Don Valley between Leaside and Pape-Donlands since 1927. It was last renovated in 2004, about a year after the Luminous Veil was installed. That's when the city should have seriously considered installing a barrier there too, according to Jason Ash, co-chair of the Leaside Towers Tenants Association. "The LTTA believes bridges must have safety barriers, city-wide," Ash wrote in a letter to the committee. "Too many tragedies have occurred already." Ash told CBC Toronto that although he's seen no numbers on suicide attempts at the bridge, he and his members believe they've risen in recent years. "We know when a suicide has occurred when there's flowers on the bridge, when there's flowers on the Lower Don Trail beneath it, and even when there are attempts that are thankfully unsuccessful," he said. "The police presence closes all or part of the bridge and impacts the whole area." Ash also noted that last summer's tragedy may give momentum to the effort to speed up the barrier construction at Leaside. "My heart goes out to the families, particularly in the last year, when innocent people unfortunately lost their lives as well," he said. "It's a tragedy all around." Uditsky told the committee the lessons of the Luminous Veil's success should have been heeded at other locales. "When you know better, you should do better," she said. "And you didn't. "Please change this for the safety of everyone driving on the Don Valley Parkway under that bridge."
