Toronto’s famous bike-lane guardian remained off the job Monday as cyclists demanded his return to local streets and Twitter.

“He’s not back to work yet,” Mike McCormack, president of the Toronto police association, said of parking enforcement officer Kyle Ashley, declining to say why.

“We’re very concerned and troubled about the way this has unfolded and the way the (police) service has treated Kyle.”

Ashley burst onto Toronto’s commuting scene in June when he convinced his bosses to let him focus solely on protecting bike lanes. His cheeky use of Twitter to scold motorists who invade bike lanes earned public kudos from Mayor John Tory and then-chief planner Jennifer Keesmaat.

Toronto cyclists heralded a change in tone from police, while others in cities including Copenhagen tweeted applause and envy that their bike lanes are not so well protected. Canada Post agreed to stop its trucks from invading the lanes after Ashley singled out the Crown corporation. Parking enforcement added two more officers targeting bike lanes and tweeting about the problem.

But Ashley also raised eyebrows with an outspoken style, and willingness to take aim at politicians over cycling issues, unusual for a junior civil servant.

Ashley deactivated his popular @TPS_ParkingPal Twitter account Friday after two managers showed up at his home, when he was off sick, and demanded he turn over control of his social media accounts. Police said he was not suspended from his job but they were investigating the “appropriateness” of some of his tweets after getting “numerous complaints.”

Police spokesman Mark Pugash won’t discuss the source of the complaints, saying it would be improper while a probe is ongoing. He has acknowledged one manager did raise with Ashley the subject of complaints from Montreal.

Ashley’s work was admired by Montreal cyclists who urged Denis Coderre, Montreal’s mayor until he lost an election Sunday, to similarly get tough with lane-invading motorists.

Kyle Ashley has one job and that's to patrol bike lanes in the city and capture lane invaders for the Toronto Police Parking Enforcement. Ashley is on the front lines in the battle of cyclists and car owners. This video was originally published onJune 15, 2017.

While Ashley did not tweet directly at Coderre, the day before the parking officer was suspended he responded to a tweet, in which Coderre was tagged, and suggested Coderre could get more votes if he protected the most vulnerable, Le Journal de Montréal reported on the weekend.

Ashley also told the Quebec newspaper that in September one of his bosses said he had received a call from a senior City of Montreal official asking that Ashley stop interacting with Montreal people on social networks. Road safety became an issue in Montreal in September after a motorist struck and killed a 61-year-old cyclist, prompting the mayor of the local borough to accuse Coderre of not doing enough to protect cyclists.

Ashley’s other Twitter targets included the “distracted walking” law proposed by Yvan Baker, a Toronto MPP who said neither he nor his staff complained about the tweets, and city Councillor Giorgio Mammoliti who frequently questions spending on bike lanes and criticizes what he calls a “war on the car.”

Mammoliti said in an email Monday he did not complain either. “I do not follow Mr. Ashley's tweets and I will leave it up to the Police Services Board to decide whether he has crossed the line while on duty using his authority as a TPS officer to further his personal agenda as a cycling activist.”

On Twitter Monday, cyclists continued calling on Toronto police to fully reinstate Ashley.

“What a disgrace! Kyle Ashley was one of the few bright spots for @TorontoPolice. Let's call on TPS & @JohnTory to #BringBackKyle! #BikeTO,” tweeted Robert Zaichkowski.

Another cyclist, Julie Mollins, started an online petition hashtagged #freeparkingpal that states: “Rather than having his protective voice crushed, PEO Ashley deserves to be restored to Twitter and retained in an advocacy role, filling a void that has historically existed in Toronto.”

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City Councillor Shelley Carroll, a police services board member, said she admired Ashley’s work but worried his tweets strayed from early advocacy to the “purely political.”

“It is really important going into an election year to not have a Toronto police employee taking up sides and engaging in a direct way in politics,” she said.

Asked about any complaints from Montreal, Carroll said she had heard of none and hoped if there were any they went to Andy Pringle, civilian chair of the police services board, and not directly to Toronto police officials.

The Star could not reach Pringle for comment.