Letting the Millennium Library be what it can be

Opinion

After yet another underwhelming response to a tragic incident, it’s fair to ask whether the City of Winnipeg wants to keep the Millennium Library open.

One man killed himself by jumping over the railing of the fourth floor of the Millennium Library — a railing that overlooks a spectacular glass wall and atrium that runs all the way to the main level — and another attempted a similar act of self harm. The city responded by installing foreboding metal construction fencing near the railings.

The city says the fencing is only a temporary measure until a more permanent safety solution can be found.

However, based on the fact the city has failed miserably to deliver meaningful safety upgrades at Millennium, one has to wonder whether that solution will ever come.

Unfortunately, Millennium Library appears to be, in the eyes of many on city council, more of a problem than a solution of any kind. You can see this perspective at work in council’s decision in the last civic budget to reduce hours of operation and to eliminate funding for Community Connections, a social service and community support hub that operated out of a space in the library’s lobby.

The skeptics on council are driven, no doubt, by the tragic and sometimes violent incidents that have occurred at the library over the last several years, including a fatal stabbing.

These incidents are largely a reflection of the challenges faced by the entire downtown, which is fighting a daily battle to provide support to the homeless, addicted and mentally ill.

However, by focusing largely on the negatives, council lost sight of the valuable presence the library could have if the city gave it the resources it needs.

The role of libraries worldwide has been changing as their customer bases have changed — most are now much more than just book-lenders.

And the Millennium Library is no different.

Winnipeg’s flagship library branch has served as a haven for everyone downtown.

It is one of the only warm, dry places that the homeless can go for relief from the elements. It is also one of the only free places left downtown where families can go to find programming for children.

It has space for podcasters, animators and musicians, and computers for people who cannot afford their own.

And finally, the downtown library is a beacon of support for new Canadians who need help printing documents, applying for benefits and searching for work.

Over the years, as the library’s mandate has grown to meet the needs of the downtown populations, the job of keeping staff and patrons safe has grown more complex. Rather than augmenting library resources, council has chosen to cut back.

Although its difficult to determine whether additional social service and library staff would have been able to prevent the recent suicide, it seems obvious that as resources are drained from the library, it becomes impossible to make Millennium a safe and functional place. That traps the library in a self-fulfilling death spiral.

There is a way to save Millennium from this fate. In a recent commentary published in the Free Press, local musician and publisher John Samson Fellows, who was a writer-in-residence at Millennium in 2016-17, offered a simple path forward so that Millennium can fulfill its role for the downtown.

“One thing we can do is examine our systems, which we can change, and see how we might offer love, support and solidarity to people in crisis. This isn’t done by building fortresses to keep them out, but by extending welcome and care and meeting them where they are, in places like the Millennium.”