Sexual harassment, intimidation, violence on the job worsened during pandemic, librarians report

Librarian Nancy Duncan has been shouted and sworn at and called names so many times on the job, she says she's lost count. 

She's been sexually harassed and routinely witnesses patrons refusing to wear masks and making racist remarks toward her colleagues.. She's intervened in an overdose, jabbing a patron with naloxone and saving their life. But sometimes she wonders how much longer she'll be able to cope.

"We brush it off, but as the weeks go by and these incidents keep repeating, it starts to weigh on your mental health," Duncan told CBC News.

"Libraries are like a microcosm of society. All of the problems you see at the larger level, we're experiencing at the local, individual level."

Duncan and librarians Cameron Ray and Eila McLeish are speaking out about the harassment, assaults and threats they face every day in Ontario libraries, which they say have become more prevalent over the course of the pandemic as other public spaces closed.

Libraries opened first at the end of the lockdowns and have emerged as a vital social safety net, a place for everyone free of charge, said Ray.

However, he said he's been subjected to three death threats and three physical assaults. Often, he feels out of his depth responding to the growing number of patrons experiencing mental illness, homelessness or addictions.