All options on the table for Millennium Library safety improvements, councillor says

The Millennium Library remains closed as city staff continue to look into safety improvements.

The downtown library has been partially closed — aside from pickups, holds and returns — since 28-year-old Tyree Cayer was fatally stabbed there on Dec. 11 of last year.

Four teens, aged 14, 15, and 16, were arrested and charged, three with manslaughter and one with second-degree murder.

The city said in late December that it was looking at a phased approach to resuming service, with a full reopening planned for mid-January. No formal reopening date has been announced in the weeks since.

Coun. John Orlikow, chair of the city’s standing committee on community services, told 680 CJOB on Wednesday that says all options to make staff and patrons feel safe remain on the table.

“There could be some very expensive capital changes, but then also some staffing issues,” he said.

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“Do we have some more security in the place? Are they community hosts? Are they police officers?

“We’re going to have to reopen. … we’ll put some things in place and then continue to work on the problem as we go forward.”

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Orlikow said the city will work with a consulting group to assess a physical plan for both the inside and outside of the building.

“We have been consulting and working with a number of stakeholders including our staff, putting some ideas forward, getting the feedback.

“We do now have a group — I hope we’ll have it announced shortly, finalizing the contract — that’s going to come in. … They have some more experience nationally on this issue, because it is a national issue as well.”

The issue of security at the 45-year-old library has been a controversial one, with the installation of airport-style protocols in 2019 leading to protests about the screening measures running counter to the library’s community goals.

A report later that year saw fewer incidents following the increased security, but also a drop in library attendance.

Critics of the measures have called them racist and classist, suggesting that Indigenous and Black library users were singled out, as well as homeless people.

2:09 Victim in Millennium Library homicide remembered