Unruly, intoxicated man inside St. Vital library branch forces staff to lock doors

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 05/02/2024 (674 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Library safety is in the spotlight again after a St. Vital branch went into lockdown Friday afternoon.

The Louis Riel branch at 1168 Dakota St. shut its doors for about 30 minutes after a “safety incident involving a member of the public,” city spokesperson Adam Campbell confirmed Monday.

Library staff saw a man drinking in the public building, and when asked to leave, he allegedly threw his beer, a chair and a pair of headphones at staff while making threatening comments.

The man eventually left on his own and the library locked down shortly after.

Winnipeg Police Service public information officer Const. Claude Chancy confirmed officers arrived at the library just after 12 p.m. after reports an intoxicated man was causing a disturbance. No assaults or injuries were reported.

“Officers located the male eating nearby, advising he had been drinking and had not handled the situation appropriately. The male was provided a courtesy ride to a shelter, provided appropriate advice, and cautioned for causing a disturbance,” Chancy told the Free Press in an email, adding he is not facing any charges.

Staff told police they would assess the individual’s future access to the library.

Last week Charleswood-Tuxedo-Westwood Coun. Evan Duncan told the Free Press the community connections space, which provides supports to vulnerable people at the downtown Millennium Library, should eventually be moved to another location.

Duncan said he’s concerned people who seek help at the library-based site could suffer mental-health and addictions crises in the public space and disrupt other patrons.

“Unfortunately, those that are in crisis may have incidents that are out of the norm for people who are just going to participate in a program or take out a book… and then they don’t want to come back because they are scared to come back,” Duncan said.

Having a community connections space at the downtown library isn’t a long-term solution for providing social services, he said.

“We simply don’t have the resources and financial support for it,” Duncan said.

He did not respond to a request for comment Monday about last week’s incident at Louis Riel.

An advocate for public libraries said the incident should serve as a reminder libraries should get more funding, not less.

“The consequence of not funding for increased staffing and for these community safety hosts and for community connections… it means that the city will be just having these unsafe spaces for their library workers, and for the public,” said Kirsten Wurmann, a program co-ordinator for the Manitoba Library Association.

The community connections space at the Millennium Library has referred more than 1,500 people to support services since it reopened on Oct. 30. It was closed for 11 months after Tyree Cayer was stabbed to death inside the library’s main floor on Dec. 11, 2022.

A city report notes there were 930 visits to the community connections space in November and 1,274 in December.

Between Oct. 30 and Dec. 31, community connections staff referred people to resources for food, clothing, addictions support and other needs hundreds of times, including 259 referrals for housing or shelter.

The space not only serves as a safe space for people in crisis, but it provides critical community resources and information to the public, Wurmann said.

When working as a public librarian before pivoting to advocacy — including speaking for the Millennium for All group — Wurmann experienced similar scenarios as the one at Louis Riel Friday.

She also spent a significant amount of time connecting members of the public with various resources and supports.

“That’s what this space does. It provides this type of information access for folks needing this type of information, because that’s what a library does,” she said.

Wurmann said if community connections services were no longer around, the level of safety in libraries wouldn’t change — and might get worse.

“Just taking that away doesn’t mean that all of a sudden, that particular group of patrons aren’t going to be coming to the library anymore,” she said, adding libraries have been long underfunded and understaffed to help vulnerable people.

Last July city council approved security changes and funding for public libraries, including 4.2 full-time staff positions and two additional community safety hosts.

Wurmann said to have libraries that are fully staffed citywide and at par with urban libraries across Canada, the city will need 85 more staff.

“If you have fully staffed libraries, you have safer spaces,” she said.

A report last fall said the city needed to hire 12 more full-time equivalent library staff at a cost of $11 million over the next four years.

The city plans to release a draft of its 2024 budget Wednesday.

— with files from Joyanne Pursaga

nicole.buffie@freepress.mb.ca