PHOTOCOURTESY WINNIPEGLIBRARY
ON APRIL 1, a knife-wielding suspect was arrested by police at the Toronto Reference Library. On April 7, two people were arrested at the Halifax Central Library following reports of a person carrying a pellet gun. And on Feb. 25, library officials in Winnipeg launched a new security program at the city’s Millennium Library that includes running a metal-detector wand over people who enter the building while a guard searches bags.
What’s behind the rash of issues in Canada’s downtown libraries? In short, a city’s societal problems -like poverty, alcohol and drug abuse, violence, and mental-health crises -have a habit of seeping into its libraries.