Latest news with #MillenniumLibrary
CTV News
02-07-2025
- Business
- CTV News
Winnipeg to begin removing parking pay stations
Time has officially run out on city-operated parking pay stations in Winnipeg. Beginning Tuesday, the City of Winnipeg is removing pay stations on all streets and city-owned parking lots. The only exception is the Millennium Library Parkade, which will still have stations. According to the city, the change is being made as these pay stations run on 3G networks, which mobile service providers are phasing out. It noted they've also 'reached the end of their useful life, use outdated technology, and attract theft and vandalism,' adding that 80 per cent of payments are already being made through a mobile payment service. With the parking pay stations gone, Winnipeggers are encouraged to download the PayByPhone app. Parking payments can also be completed online or by calling 1-888-680-7275. Prepaid Parking Booklets are available at the The Parking Store, located at 495 Portage Ave. The removal process is expected to be finished by the end of August. Private parking lots will not be affected by this change. With files from CTV's Danton Unger.
Winnipeg Free Press
19-06-2025
- General
- Winnipeg Free Press
Winnipeg: not the city it was
Opinion I grew up in rural Manitoba and moved to Winnipeg in 1978. I was in my early teens. Coming from a village with a population of 500, Winnipeg was my New York City: bright lights and excitement, non-stop places to go and things to do. Spending time downtown on Saturdays, meeting friends for breakfast, going shopping, seeing movies, that was the life. Downtown Winnipeg was the place to be. For many years I felt safe, and I loved this city. I never had a driver's licence. Just because we can doesn't mean we should, and I know I would have been a terrible driver. So instead I took the bus for 42 years and was quite familiar with the city routes. I got around well on my own most of the time, but then things started to change. A lot. In the mid 2000s I stopped facilitating the Finding Your Voice writing program for newcomers at the Millennium Library because taking the bus home alone at night had become terrifying. From the Graham Avenue bus stop I experienced different levels of fear, for myself and for others, on an all-too-frequent basis. Assaults were commonplace. I had to seek assistance from various groups, organizations, and authorities more times than I wish to remember. JOHN WOODS / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS A 71 bus passes a bus shack on Portage Avenue at Burnell. 'Is this normal?' I'd ask myself. The same way I did growing up in a household where alcoholism and violence were normalized, I couldn't help but wonder why so many of us humans find ways to justify and explain it away. Desperate people do desperate things. Hurt people hurt people. Everyone has a story. It's a lot of the content I'd include in my programs for refugees and immigrants new to the city. But after a while I couldn't answer the questions from those I was mentoring and teaching. Why are so many struggling and suffering? Why aren't the people able to get help? Why do we have to live in fear? Why is it that when we begin to ask questions we are labelled in all kinds of ways? On a winter's day in 2020, I decided I'd had enough and would never get on a bus again. By that point I'd witnessed everything from yelling and screaming to violent pushing and shoving. I'd experienced sexual advances, having someone fall over me in a seat, and someone behind me pass out on my shoulder. I'd seen bodily excretions that included vomit, blood and excrement. (The excrement was significant in quantity and the bus driver had to get to the bus station so passengers could get on a different bus.) Those are just a few of the highlights, but on that day after my shift as a writing tutor at the Red River College downtown campus, I got on the packed bus. It was late morning. A man forcefully shoved me to where he wanted to go and began verbally abusing a woman and child beside us. At that moment I said never again. I got off the bus and walked home. It was a 45-minute walk in the cold. But I couldn't take it anymore. I still think of that woman and child years later, and all the others I helplessly watched over the years. Since then, I haven't taken another bus. I walk or rely on friends for rides. I'm in my early 60s now. I'm lucky because I can still walk to get around. It's not really socially or politically acceptable to talk about these things anymore, so I've refrained from writing about the topic the way I used to. But at my age, I'm not as worried about what people say. I'm much more concerned about trying to help bring change to where change is screaming to happen. I've been told it's like this in every city and in every neighbourhood. I've been advised to volunteer more. It's been suggested that maybe I'm too sensitive or I attract these incidents. Perhaps my trauma-informed life brings them to me. I have tons of empathy for people, and more than an awareness of the complexities of mental health issues and addictions. My own anxiety levels have skyrocketed as a result of what I've experienced on the streets of downtown Winnipeg and in my former home in Lord Roberts, but that's another story, for another time. Tuesdays A weekly look at politics close to home and around the world. I feel awful for those who struggle and suffer, including those who don't feel safe anymore. I don't know what I'd do if I didn't have a partner with a vehicle. My world would be really small. Winnipeg has changed dramatically. People need resources desperately. We don't need expensive studies and conferences in fancy hotels. We don't need reviews or updates or statements from politicians. We need action. Winnipeg is in pain. The people need help and they need it now. Janine LeGal is a local freelance writer, community activist, life-long member of Amnesty International and volunteer who has dedicated her life to ensuring that everyone has a voice.
CTV News
11-06-2025
- CTV News
Library association says rise in violent incidents ‘not a surprise' after Community Connections closure
A new report shows incidents at Millennium Library are on the rise this year. CTV's Joseph Bernacki takes a closer look at the data. A new report shows incidents at Millennium Library are on the rise this year. CTV's Joseph Bernacki takes a closer look at the data. A concerning rise in violent incidents at the Millennium Library came as no surprise to a group that fought to save the facility's community resources space after its funding was cut last year. According to an administrative report before the city's standing policy committee on community services, incidents at the downtown library jumped nearly 70 per cent in the first three months of 2025, with spikes in assaults, harassment, and vandalism. Kirsten Wurmann, with the Manitoba Library Association, said the rise correlates to the shuttering of Community Connections – a resource hub housed in the Millennium Library that lost its funding in the 2025 budget. 'It's not a surprise, and I don't think that it's a coincidence,' Wurmann said. Community Connections had operated in the library since 2022, offering access to librarians, library assistants, crisis workers and safety hosts trained in de-escalation. The Downtown Community Safety Partnership (DCSP) has since moved into the space, hoping to offer similar support. 'This space gives (library users) somewhere to meet privately, in a safe space,' DCSP director of operations Matt Halchakar told CTV News Winnipeg on Monday. 'They come into the space with our staff to talk about their needs and how they can work towards them.' Wurmann said Community Connections' range of services are sorely missed—services that are tantamount to a library's function within a community. 'It's all about equity access to information and knowledge and guided by the trauma-informed and harm reduction principles and community development, as well,' she said. 'This is very much a library service. This is what libraries do.' CTV News Winnipeg requested comment on the matter from Coun. Vivian Santos, who chairs the community services committee, but did not receive a response. - With files from CTV's Joseph Bernacki
CBC
10-06-2025
- CBC
Millennium Library safety incidents spike in first quarter of 2025
The number of concerning incidents at Winnipeg's downtown Millennium Library increased sharply in the first few months of this year. From January to March, there were 309 incidents, compared with 183 during the same period the year before, a 68.9 per cent increase, according to a report to be discussed at the community services committee meeting on June 13. That increase occurred despite a 7.5 per cent drop in attendance, which the report attributes to City of Winnipeg's decision to cut opening times on Sundays and Monday evenings and to close Community Connections, the service hub which had operated in the library since 2022. Across the entire library system, there were 498 safety issues, compared with 361 last year, an increase of 38 per cent, while attendance rose marginally by 0.9 per cent. Funding for the Community Connections space, which provided low-barrier information services and crisis intervention inside the lobby of the Millennium Library, ended after Dec. 31, 2024. The space had library staff, community safety hosts and crisis workers who could help de-escalate people and refer them to outside agencies and resources. Kirsten Wurmann, a librarian and program co-ordinator with the Manitoba Library Association, isn't surprised to see the increased number of safety incidents. "This coincides exactly with the closure of Community Connections," she said. "I said this in my last delegation to members of council back in January, and not just me, but many, many other people said that staffing is really important to make a safer space in which to work and to visit." About half of the incidents at Millennium Library from January to March this year related to inappropriate behaviour, with 156 incidents, a 110 per cent increase from the year before. There were 32 incidents involving intoxication, 433 per cent higher than last year. Since the closure of Community Connnections, the number of referrals to outside agencies has plummeted. Workers in the space made 5,886 referrals from January to March last year. Since the closure, library staff at all other service desks in the library began tracking the same referral data, recording a total of 812 this year. "This decrease … implies that, since the closure of Community Connections, people may not be entering the library, past the metal detector gates, for their information requests," the report states. Despite that decrease, the workload of library staff at the service desks has increased substantially. "When Community Connections closed, we knew that incidents were going to increase, because now there's nobody serving the community," said Mary Burton, executive director of Zoongizi Ode Inc., a non-profit which trains community safety hosts to work inside the library. After closing Community Connections, the Downtown Community Safety Partnership announced plans to set up an office in the space. But Burton said that office is not open as much as Community Connections was, and doesn't offer the same services. Referrals made by community crisis workers in Millennium Library rose 245 per cent in the three-month period, according to the report. "That is because there is nobody at the front line being the go-between between the community and the crisis workers," Burton said. Mayor Scott Gillingham and other council members have said the front lobby of the library was not the appropriate space for the Community Connections hub, and argued the provincial government should help fund it, since it mostly referred people to provincial services.
CTV News
09-06-2025
- CTV News
Assault, harassment incidents skyrocket at Millennium Library: report
Incidents at Millennium Library were up nearly 70 per cent in the first months of 2025, with massive spikes reported in assaults, harassment and vandalism. The data comes in an administrative report before the city's standing policy committee on community services, outlining attendance and incidents across all Winnipeg Public Library branches. According to the report, there were 309 incidents logged at the Millennium Library between January and March 2025, compared to 183 during the same time period in 2024. That represents a 68 per cent jump. 'Safety and security incidents continue to be a concern in library branches throughout the city,' the report said. 'The findings indicate a continuation of incidents and de-escalations with library services.' Breaking down the incidents by type, there were 11 assaults reported in the first quarter of 2025—up 57 per cent from 2024. Similarly, harassment was up 71 per cent from last year, with 12 incidents reported. Intoxication incidents also rose 433 per cent, from six in the first quarter of 2024 to 32 this year. Incidents also trended upwards across all Winnipeg Public Library branches, though not as drastically. Overall, branch-wide incidents were up 38 per cent from 2024, with assault, harassment, inappropriate behaviour, and hazardous conditions ballooning by at least 100 per cent in each category compared to last year. The spikes come amid a fall in attendance at Millennium Library, which was down seven per cent, while visitors across all branches rose marginally by under one per cent. The city service began submitting these quarterly library attendance and incident reports in response to a 2022 homicide at the Millennium Library. The incident prompted updated safety measures across all branches, including additional security guards, community safety hosts, and a resources hub. The reports are meant to monitor the additional safety measures and their impact. The latest report will be considered at a June 13 committee meeting. It can be read in full on the city's website.
