SFU ends contract with security firm hired to monitor union members on picket lines

Simon Fraser University has ended its contract with a private security firm it hired to monitor union picket lines, saying it will reassess how it hires for security contracts in the future. 

The university's Teaching Support Staff Union's (TSSU) 1,600 members have been on strike for two weeks, asking for cost-of-living adjustments, and pensions for sessional instructors.

SFU confirmed in a statement it hired Lions Gate Risk Management Group (LGRMG) "to help us monitor picket line activity" and that "TSSU was made aware of complaints about picket line behaviour on several occasions, with continued concerns raised about safety."

On its website, LGRMG describes itself as a security risk management firm that provides services like surveillance, technical sweeps and countermeasures, and workplace investigations. It says its employees have "command and control experience for major labour disputes," and "knowledge in subversive, terrorist and activist practices." 

The group has in the past been employed by forestry company Teal-Jones Group to surveil Indigenous protesters at Fairy Creek on Vancouver Island, and hired to protect the Transmountain pipeline.

TSSU picket lines are scattered at locations around campus, each with a handful of members drumming on plastic orange buckets.

Teaching assistants on the picket lines said they noticed people who weren't members of the union watching, filming and photographing them. In one instance, the union said an investigator from the group approached a picketer to make conversation, without identifying himself as an LGRMG employee.

SFU said in its statement the group was hired because of reports of "intimidation and entry ways being illegally blocked," and that LGRMG was asked to only film behaviour on picket lines that could constitute bullying, harassment, or illegal activity.

But Jess Hercus, a research assistant in biology currently on strike said the presence of the firm made otherwise peaceful picket lines feel unsafe.

"I have no idea what security threat they're getting from us. They've been standing around filming us and honestly making us feel incredibly unsafe," they said.

Kelvin Gawley, a masters students at SFU and organizer with the union, said hiring the firm made teaching assistants on strike feel they were being treated "like criminals."

"To treat us like we're some kind of threat to this community we love so much, it's genuinely unbelievable," he said.

"To have literal private investigators following us around, when we're just teachers that love what we do."

In a statement, the union asked that the university turn over all records related to the firm's hiring, and that all footage of the picket lines be destroyed. 

"SFU claims it can't afford to pay instructors a living wage, but it suddenly has the budget to hire private spies," TSSU trustee Kyle Simpson said in the statement.

"We're teachers, not dangerous thugs."

SFU said in a statement it will "reassess how we support safety on our picket lines going forward, as well as how we assess and determine contracted safety providers in the future."