Week of protest targets library security

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This article was published 21/02/2020 (1769 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Local drag queens are taking a temporary break from their strike against Millennium Library storytime to perform in the lobby outside the gates today as part of a weeklong series of events in protest of the security measures — one year after they were installed.

Since screening was introduced at the downtown library entrance in February 2019, Millennium for All has repeatedly criticized the move as one that disinvites marginalized people into the public space.

The advocacy group has since ramped up its efforts to condemn both the metal detectors and bag searches for visitors 13 and older, as well as proposed city budget cuts to local libraries by launching Library Week, Feb. 21 to 27.

Among the events, drag queens will return to the space today to read children’s books and perform numbers in the lobby so community members do not have to go through security to attend.

“If everyone can’t go to the library when it’s supposed to be there for everyone, then I don’t want to be there,” said Moxie Cotton, one of the queens who is participating in today’s event. “It’s supposed to be a resource and if the people who most need the resources can’t have it, that’s so unfair and so wrong.”

Cotton said she ran storytime at the Millennium once, prior to the security gates going up, but has since avoided it in solidarity with the anti-security protests. Other queens have opted to perform at other city libraries instead.

Joe Curnow, an organizer with Millennium for All, called today’s event a, “one-time only, back to the good old days thing” since local queens decided to halt programming to acknowledge that queer and trans Winnipeggers, among other marginalized populations, are disproportionally affected by such strategies.

“This is an opportunity for us to turn out a lot of people and stress the kind of impacts that the security policy has, that the cuts to library and other life sustaining services will have,” Curnow said about Library Week.

At the time of the measures’ introduction 2019, the city’s manager of library services said they were necessary to deal with an increasing number of incidents, but that no staff members’ safety had been put in jeopardy.

Library data show “disorder events” — an umbrella term for incidents that involved disturbance, intoxication, assault, well-being, threats, indecent behaviour or a “suspicious person” — increased by 77 per cent between 2017 and 2018.

Recorded incidents increased from 64 to 113 during that time, although annual statistics fluctuate; there was a spike in 2014, which saw 96 events.

More recently, reports from library staff and police indicate a decline in serious incidents since the measures were installed. There has also been a decline in attendance — something Millennium for All has been calling attention to.

Sarah Cooper, an assistant professor in city planning at the University of Manitoba, has been analyzing library data from the last five years or so, to see how Millennium Library’s 2019 visitor count compares to previous years.

“It shows that visits to the library have dropped about 30 per cent in the 11 months since the screenings were introduced,” Cooper told the Free Press.

Attendance between March 2018 and January 2019 dropped by about 250,000 visits compared to that same period in 2019-20. While there have been dramatic drops in the past, attendance has ranged from 782,489 to 805,669 between 2015-16 and 2018-19, compared to last year’s 552,781 total visits.

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When asked about Library Week, a city spokesperson said budget proposals — including the cuts to library hours and branches — must be approved by council. Elected officials will then vote on the operating and capital budgets in March.

The preliminary budget will be released March 6.

The city’s statement did not address the security measures at Millennium.

maggie.macintosh@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @macintoshmaggie