Great Library | Record number of 911 calls

At the passage of The Press at the Grande Bibliothèque, in the heart of Montreal, a man showing signs of intoxication punches the entrance door before heading towards the computers section on the ground floor.

Once seated, he will begin to hum over the music that is loudly spilling out of his headphones, then to shout aggressively, attracting the suspicion of neighboring users. On five occasions, employees politely asked the Internet user to tone down.

This daily scene clearly reflects the mission of inclusion of the Grande Bibliothèque, sometimes at the risk of the serenity of the place. “Here, we don’t push people away, we welcome them,” explains Marie Andrée Duchesne, director of security at BAnQ. “It’s very different from Place Dupuis or other private institutions, for example. We are more into prevention than repression. »

The majority of interventions by Garda agents concern incidents of minor seriousness, linked to breaches of the user code, according to M^me Duchesne.

However, reprehensible behavior requires calls to the police more than ever, according to documents obtained by The Press thanks to the Access to Information Act ; 78 in 2022 compared to 52 in 2019 and 37 in 2018, two years when the Grande Bibliothèque nevertheless welcomed twice as many visitors.

If the number of interventions by security services (405) remained fairly stable in proportion to traffic last year, the 911 emergency service was requested 129 times, a record number. These calls were directed to the police (78), ambulance (40) or fire (11).

On the ground, management is observing this increase in tensions between the walls of the library – “the level of tolerance has decreased significantly in all populations,” explains Sébastien Nadeau, director of public services.

At the request of staff, the Grande Bibliothèque installed posters near the counters to encourage users to be courteous. “The increase in incidents greatly worries employees,” notes Mélissa Boutet, vice-president, health and safety at work, at the Union of United Workers of BAnQ – CSN.

Shortly before our call, she had heard of a chair being thrown by a user. “There is verbal aggression, users arguing, objects being thrown,” lists the documentation technician, who would like to see more social workers roaming the floors.

More money for security

On December 21, Quebec allocated the sum of $140,000 to BAnQ so that it could integrate the services of a psychosocial worker into the Grande Bibliothèque for a year. “This person will be able to offer support and care to users in situations of social vulnerability,” we indicate in a press release. In addition, as part of this pilot project, the worker will support and equip staff members. »

The Grande Bibliothèque already collaborates on security issues with the Table de concertation du Faubourg Saint-Laurent and community organizations such as the Old Brewery Mission and Specter de rue.

The budget allocated to security has continued to increase since 2013, show data provided by BAnQ following a request for access to information. The Grande Bibliothèque has allocated $1,750,000 in 2022, compared to $1,370,000 in 2013, a jump of around 30% in 10 years, more than inflation.

“We refuse behaviors”

Behind the window of the room where our interview takes place, police officers arrest a man and take him into their patrol car, a scene that seems to have been arranged with the guys in the views to remind us of the busy environment around the Grande Bibliothèque , a few steps from Émilie-Gamelin Park and the Berri-UQAM station, where issues of homelessness, drug addiction and mental health converge.

One of the many Garda agents, stationed at the entrance to the Great Library, however, takes care to ensure a certain decorum beyond the porticos. “We don’t refuse people, we refuse behaviors,” explains Marie-Pierre Gadoua, coordinator of social mediation and cultural action at the Grande Bibliothèque.

Its role is in particular to forge links with community organizations in the neighborhood to develop creative projects. “It establishes a respect for people and places,” she says.

After our meeting, the aggressive Internet user was reported to a security agent. He will make three interventions in the next half hour. The man ends up falling asleep on his keyboard; calm is restored.

Books and bullets

A group of teenagers move restlessly back and forth in the elevator of the Saint-Michel library. An employee interrupts his work on the shelves to call the group to order. The intervention seems banal, but it takes place in a tense context. A few meters away, at the beginning of October, shots were fired in the toilets by young people aged 15 and 16, who were subsequently arrested. The crime would be linked to a criminal gang from the neighboring Joseph-François-Perrault school and Octogonal Park, according to our information. “The event raised a lot of concern, both among staff and management,” explains Audrey Villeneuve, spokesperson for the Villeray–Saint-Michel–Parc-Extension district. “A security agent has been deployed on the ground and a security action plan is currently being implemented. »

In 2021, shots also rang out in the library parking lot. Since then, a community agent has been working with the establishment team to prevent violence among adolescents. The gunshots in Saint-Michel echo events that occurred in December 2021 in the Philippe-Panneton library, in Laval, where an 18-year-old man was shot under the stunned gaze of around fifteen employees and users, including children. The victim, linked to the Chomedey 45 gang, would have thought he was safe in a temple of knowledge. In April 2022, it was the turn of a public library in Anjou to be riddled by a stray bullet.

With Daniel Renaud, The Press