[bru-info] For Immediate Release: Bus Riders Oppose Armed Skytrain Police

[bru-info at lists.resist.ca]

December 6, 2005

****For Immediate Release****


Bus Riders Oppose Armed SkyTrain Police

Armed SkyTrain police means heightened racial profiling & violence - not genuine safety for bus riders


Vancouver - The Bus Riders Union opposes the launch of TransLink's new armed police force. Many bus riders have told organizers from the progressive union that they have experienced racial profiling and violence from SkyTrain police. Explains Beth Grayer, BRU organizer, "Many bus riders feel terrorised by SkyTrain police. The presence of SkyTrain police alone intimidates many transit-dependent people, especially youth, seniors, children, women, immigrants and refugees - now that the police are armed, we are even more concerned".


The Bus Riders Union is a grassroots organization with 900 members fighting to put the needs of transit-dependent people, who are majority women and disproportionately people of colour and aboriginal people, at the centre of public policy. They have been organizing in the GVRD since 2001. Continues Grayer, "we have heard from many bus riders, particularly from communities of colour and aboriginal communities, that they have been racial profiled, assaulted, harassed, detained, interrogated, arrested and humiliated by SkyTrain police" 


The SkyTrain police, in addition to carrying semi-automatic weapons, will also hold power to arrest, detain and issue $173 fines for 'fare evasion'. BRU organizer Yuly Chan notes, "These new expanded powers go hand in hand with high fares and inadequate transit service - first they raise fares to unaffordable levels, then they put armed police on the SkyTrain to terrorise people into complying." Chan continues, "The real priority safety issues in the transit system are overcrowding, unreliable and infrequent service, poorly lit bus stops and high fares". 


The decision to arm SkyTrain police came just a short few months after TransLink decided to build the $1.9 billion RAV line, which is the largest public-private partnership project in Canadian history. The contract for the new SkyTrain line was granted to SNC-Lavallin, a Montreal-based corporation profiting from making bullets for the war in Iraq and Afghanistan. Grayer reflects, "There's a real link here - TransLink is contributing to the war at home on people of colour and Aboriginal people - and they're also contributing to the war abroad on people of colour in Afghanistan and Haiti. We need to call TransLink on what they are doing - contributing to the war at home and the war abroad- both acts of racism against oppressed communities". 


The Bus Riders Union will continue to educate, organize and mobilize for the justice and dignity of bus riders because transit is a fundamental human right and necessary for the survival, livelihood and health of poor and working class communities. Notes Chan, "attacks on our communities just strengthen our resolve to continue organizing". 


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Media Contacts:

Zailda Chan - 604-215-2775

Jennifer Efting - 604-255-4745
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