Barricades, bag checks at Millennium 'mistakes,' library manager says

Dozens of people were at Winnipeg's downtown library Tuesday afternoon protesting the airport-like security measures it implemented a year ago — and a city manager is now saying it was the wrong move.

"I think there is another way, but we need to kind of correct the mistakes we made last year," library services manager Ed Cuddy said Tuesday morning.

Millennium Library instituted new screening measures last year to deal with violence and intoxication at the downtown building.

Since bag checks became mandatory and metal detectors were installed at the front entrance, security incidents have dropped 43 per cent, Cuddy said.

"We definitely have seen a reduction in stressful incidents around violence that just have a ripple effect in the building."

But attendance also is down by one-third.

Some people are choosing not to come in, and frequent users are opting to go to other branches.

"A lot of our partners in the community have moved back because of the screening and they're re-evaluating their relationship with us, so that's tough," he said.

"We're definitely looking for a different solution."

Watch Ed Cuddy talk about the challenges one year after security crackdown:

'We need to kind of correct the mistakes we made last year'

5 years ago

Duration 1:26

Winnipeg's Millennium Library is rebuilding its entrance and its relationship with the community.

They went too far on the security side and haven't done enough on other fronts, Cuddy said.

"Would I do it again? No," he said about the entrance screening measures.

Citing Cuddy, Joe Curnow an organizer with Millennium For All, which organized Tuesday's rally, said its time for action.

"We know this is a failed policy. What we need is for [Cuddy] to take the leadership to take it out," she said.

"Security needs to come down."

Not a quiet controversy

Upset and concerned community members have raised their voices at city hall, inserted their interests in the city budget process and held a series of rallies over the year to challenge the changes, calling on the library to listen to them.

Millennium For All, which formed to work against the expanded security, has made its case against "regressive" screening measures in a report submitted to the city's Standing Policy Committee on Protection, Community Services and Parks.

Curnow, also an assistant professor at the University of Manitoba's faculty of education, says it's the most intense screening process of its kind at a public library in Canada.

For this reason, Curnow expressed no surprise about the reported drop in turnout.

"It turns away the people who would most benefit from using the library's space and public services for life-supporting and life-sustaining information, for a safe space [and] for a comfortable space to spend a few hours," she said.

As a piano tuner, Tim Harwood-Jones says he doesn't want to go to that location because he doesn't feel comfortable leaving his tuning supplies, including a hammer, in a locker at the door.

"That keeps me from going there, because I think the library is a beautiful place," he said.

Turning the page

The library's manager says he doesn't want to make the same mistake twice, which is why they are going back to the drawing board.

Library services will work with the library board and the community to come up with a new approach, Cuddy said.

"I think for something lasting to be developed, we need to work together," he said.

The front lobby could be turned into shared space with social agencies and workers, he said.

Libraries across the country are struggling to deal with similar issues, Cuddy said.

"It's no accident that some of the popular training topics [for library workers] are non-violent crisis intervention, dealing with trauma, dealing with the impact of trauma on staff, like vicarious trauma, substance awareness, that kind of thing," he said.

"It's been challenging for all of our staff."

The changes will not be immediate. Cuddy gave no timeline, but confirmed they will move away from cracking down on security to providing more social support to tackle the root causes.

"Obviously we're not going to throw security completely out the window. We've always had a security contract, but we can look at working that and look at building on things like the community connection space," he said.

"We have to balance overall our role in the community and how that may be diminished by what we've done."

'It's making a lot of people less safe'

Curnow praised the library's intent to shift to a more community-based approach instead of screening, which gives security guards the authority to use their discretion.

She explained research indicates this type of screening disproportionately impacts marginalized communities — people of colour, black and Indigenous folks, disabled people and refugees — due to institutionalized racism.

"It's not making anyone safer. It's making a lot of people less safe," Curnow said.

Curnow hopes to see increased library staff and crisis workers, instead of screening, to make it a more welcoming place

But Curnow questions the library management's assertion that they need to find an alternative before curbing bag checks and metal detectors at the downtown facility, noting they have the power to reverse the screening measures now.

"There is nowhere else for people to go and just be in all the beautiful messy diversity of Winnipeg," Curnow said.

Library can't solve all issues alone

Cuddy is calling on the province to step up and better support government agencies and community organizations that are trying to deal with root causes.

"Because the library itself isn't going to solve the issues around poverty and homelessness. We can be part of the solution, but we certainly are not to solve it for the entire city."

WATCH | Emily Brass' report:

Rally held at Millennium Library

5 years ago

Duration 1:43

Dozens of people were at Winnipeg's downtown library Tuesday afternoon protesting the airport-like security measures it implemented a year ago.