Protesters sway city hall

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This article was published 25/05/2022 (1471 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

On May 17, protesters rallied against the proposed relocation of the West Kildonan Library, and it seems to have swayed city hall. A day later, the executive policy committee voted unanimously in the protesters’ favour, only accepting the report “as information,” which means the current library will remain in place.

Approximately 150 people showed up to Jefferson Avenue library, many holding handmade signs pleading to keep the library at its current location. Many of the protesters were children from nearby schools who said they used the library regularly. People signed petitions laid out on a table, and vehicles honked as they passed.

Speakers denounced the proposed relocation, criticizing it as a step backwards to close a city-owned building in favour of mall space they called windowless and inaccessible. Multiple speakers decried the proposal as continuing a pattern of disregard for north Winnipeg, to which the crowd at times responded shouts of “shame.”

Protesters included Daniel Guenther and Evan Krosney, who spearheaded the initiative alongside Steve Snyder. Seven Oaks School Division trustee Greg McFarlane spoke at the event, and members of the Canadian Union of Public Employees, the union representing library workers, sported union jackets and waved a flag with CUPE scrawled across it.

A report at city hall tabled at a standing policy committee for property and development on May 9 recommended the library be moved into a leased space at Garden City Shopping Centre. The committee voted in favour of the relocation.

The matter will still reach a final vote at council on May 26.