toronto stupid laws

Toronto has some very stupid laws about bathtubs and garage sales

Ridiculously silly laws are common around the world, suck as Arizona's very specific and, frankly, prohibitive rule banning donkeys from using bathtubs. And Toronto is subject to its own ridiculous laws, including a couple of absolutely bananas rules governing things as mundane as bathing and second-hand sales.

A recent blog post from RE/MAX covers some of the unbelievably silly laws guiding what Canadian homeowners can and can't do, with a few specific examples applying to Toronto.

Let's say you've had a long, gruelling day on the job and return to your Etobicoke home hoping to unwind with a nice, relaxing bath.

If you're a law-abiding citizen, this may not be as easy or practical as it sounds, thanks to a local bylaw that limits the filling of a bathtub to an unbelievably shallow 3.5 inches deep.

Which is hardly enough to submerge a small rodent, let alone a fully-grown adult human.

If I was the conspiracy type, I'd say it's just another case of the corporate overlords at Big Shower colluding with local governments to clamp down on suburban bath time, but online chatter seems to indicate that this measure was actually put in place as a water conservation move in the 1970s.

Even something as ubiquitous and seemingly unregulated as the neighbourhood garage sale is bound by laws, like a section of the Toronto Municipal Code governing just how often you can hold a yard sale.

It turns out that homeowners are limited to two garage sales per year, and it doesn't end there, as the code specifies that each garage sale may not last for more than two days.

But RE/MAX only focused on the laws applying to homeowners, and there are some other equally weird rules in place in Toronto and Ontario.

Many know of the apocryphal law supposedly banning the picking of Trillium flowers in Ontario (spoiler alert, it's not necessarily true) but fewer may be aware of a law prohibiting the dragging of a dead horse on Yonge Street.

At least, it's illegal on Sundays. If you have a dead horse that needs a draggin', make sure to move said horse carcass on one of the other six days in the week.

Lead photo by

Nik Owens


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