THUNDER BAY – City manager Norm Gale says an incident involving hired security staff photographing two men slumped on a bench outside of Thunder Bay city hall is under investigation.
The incident was caught on camera and posted to social media, the poster questioning why the security guards and transit drivers appeared to be laughing while taking the picture instead of trying to help the two men.
Gale wouldn’t comment on the specific case, but said with an increase in aggressiveness toward transit employees and municipal staff in the vicinity of the city hall transit terminal, added security has been hired to keep the peace.
Gale said photographs are only ever authorized if there’s a good reason.
“There are specific circumstances. It’s not as wide open as when deemed necessary. When a person exhibits repeated behaviour, or an occurrence of egregious behaviour, we will put a trespass order on that person and the reason a picture is taken is because we have a high turnover of transit operators and people in city hall,” Gale said.
“So there’s a record kept that is a secure record, so the transit operators can see who has been trespassing.”
Asked if one or more of the individuals seen in the Facebook photos had been accused of being aggressive toward transit or city staff, or had committed an egregious act, Gale said he could not comment on an active investigation.
The city manager said the municipality remains committed to protecting its employees, transit users and city hall staff and visitors.
