Toronto authorities are trying to put an end to a wave of violence that has plagued the city’s public transport since last April and is sowing fear among some users. From now on, 80 police officers will patrol the metros, buses and trams every day. A remedy that divides the population and, according to experts, is far from resolving the issues at the root of the violence.
Cases of violence in public transport in the Queen City have been increasing for several months. In April, a woman was pushed onto the subway tracks. In July, a woman died after her clothes caught fire. In December, a 31-year-old woman was killed on the subway. On Monday, an employee was assaulted and on Tuesday, a woman in her twenties was stabbed multiple times on a streetcar. Offenses against Toronto Transit Commission employees increased by 22% between the fourth quarter of 2021 and the first of 2022.
“I know that users are anxious when they take public transport,” assured the mayor of Toronto, John Tory, Thursday afternoon. The United Transit Union (ATU Canada) — whose head office is in the Queen City — has called for the creation of a task force to end the violence, the mayor recalled. “Attacks in Toronto and across the country have reached crisis levels,” SUT Canada President John Di Nino said in an interview with the CP24 Network.
Few transit systems have responded to the union’s call so far, although the City of Winnipeg says it wants to form its own task force. In an email, a spokeswoman for the Société de transport de Montréal (STM) did not say whether the company supported the formation of a national task force. “It is important to remember that each city and each transport network has its own reality and social phenomena,” wrote the STM. “Our transportation network is safe,” she continued.
How to answer it?
The City of Toronto, the police department and the TTC have not offered a clear explanation for the escalating violence. The authorities, however, have suggested that mental health problems or homelessness could be involved, a link that worries some stakeholders in these circles. “We have to be careful when comparing mental health to violence,” says Dr. Sandy Simpson, chief of forensic psychiatry at the Center for Addiction and Mental Health in Toronto (CAMH).
“It’s a huge city. It’s hard to know what it will change to have 80 police officers, ”says David Reycraft, the director of housing at the Dixon Hall shelter. The speaker warns that people with mental health problems — whether they are homeless or not — could themselves be victims of violence if they are identified as responsible for the acts of violence by the authorities. With a lack of beds in city shelters, more and more homeless people are turning to public transport to stay warm, he observes.
“If it is suggested that the violence is due to mental health issues, sending 80 police officers on public transport means that we are treating mental health issues as criminal issues”, reacted on social networks the intervener Diana Chan McNally of the All Saints Community Center. “We need more resources for homeless people and the agencies that help them. Our teams have been navigating the pandemic for three years: we are completely exhausted, ”explains David Reycraft in French.
In the short term, Dr. Simpson believes the police response is appropriate, but like Mr. Reycraft, the doctor suggests that solutions to TTC issues go beyond system boundaries. “If we don’t address the financial precariousness of a lot of people, we won’t solve the problem,” says the CAMH psychiatrist. “We could launch the universal basic income”, proposes Dr. Sandy Simpson on the phone. It’s not just up to the TTC and the City of Toronto to end the tide of violence, he says.
The wave of violence comes as the Toronto Transit Commission prepares to adopt its budget for 2023. It provides for a reduction in services, as is the case for the STM. This will only make the TTC less safe for riders, according to Shelagh Pizey-Allen, director of the lobby group TTC Riders. “The long wait time for women at night is a safety issue,” she says. These cuts would cause more stress for users. »
This story is supported by the Local Journalism Initiative, funded by the Government of Canada.