Union calls for better training, support after assault reported at Saskatoon library

Police say two teenage girls assaulted an employee Monday at the Carlyle King Library on Laurier Drive in Saskatoon.

Officers responded to the library just before 9 p.m. CST and found that the teens had fled the scene, police say. Officers located the suspects at a bus mall in the 300 block of Confederation Drive.

Two girls aged 14 and 16 were charged with assault. Police say they believe the girls were intoxicated when they did the assault.

Kent Peterson, president of the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) Saskatchewan, which represents library employees, said he was familiar with the incident.

"A couple of patrons attacked and punched one of our members who works in the library and then when the security guard intervened, he also got physically assaulted, and the library closed the branch temporarily as a result of that violence," Peterson said.

He said attacks on library employees in Saskatchewan have been increasing in number and intensity. He mentioned another incident earlier this year where a library worker reported being sexually assaulted while working by herself.

"It is not an exaggeration for me to say that if something is not fixed meaningfully, someone is going to get killed in a Saskatchewan library as a result of workplace violence. It is routine for our library worker members to get punched, kicked and shoved, spit on, sworn at," he said.

Peterson said people are drawn to libraries by essential services like computers, phones, skills training, and help applying for jobs and schools, but a lot of visitors are living in poverty, addiction and mental health issues.

"People can't find treatment or places to go, and so they end up at the local library and [employees] are dealing with addiction issues and homelessness and those types of social ailments. That's not their job," he said.

CUPE released a report in March last year that surveyed 101 public library employees. Most respondents were from Saskatoon Public Library (44 per cent) and Regina Public Library (29 per cent). Seventy-eight per cent of participants said they had experienced verbal abuse, 44 per cent said they experienced sexual harassment and half of them said they had experienced workplace violence.

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Peterson called for more training for workers on de-escalation and trauma-informed approaches to violent incidents.

He also said drug use is very prevalent in libraries across the country, including here in Saskatchewan.

"If libraries become chaotic, violent places, then families, people new to this country trying to access services, and just anyone, will be less likely to go there, meaning they can't access those services," he said.

Peterson also called for violent offenders to be banned from specific libraries permanently.

"We need to end understaffing in our libraries. This is one of the main issues that allows violence to take place. In the recent example that one of our members faced a sexual assault at work, it was because she was by herself," he said.