[bru-info] Bus Riders Say No to Guns on Skytrain

[bru-info at lists.resist.ca]

Criminalization of bus riders on the increase in 2005 

Bus riders say no to guns on skytrain

2005 has brought three attacks on bus riders in as many months. After raising bus fares and increasing fines by 270%, now TransLink Skytrain police will be carrying guns. TransLink's Special Constables are becoming the Greater Vancouver Transportation Authority (GVTA) Police Service and will have the same powers as the RCMP, including bearing arms, and the power to detain and arrest people for outstanding warrants and arrest people on and off skytrain property. Their jurisdiction will include all parts of the transit system, including the buses.

The Bus Riders Union - a social justice organization fighting for more buses and lower fares - is opposed to this decision that will intensify the criminalization of people who rely on transit. Bus riders are low-income, majority women and disproportionately Aboriginal people and people of colour. "TransLink is using in excess of $800 000 of public money to fund a police force that will target and punish working class and marginalized communities for not being able to afford TransLink's sustained and unjust campaign of fare increases," says BRU organizer Kirat Kaur. Transit-dependent people have been forced to endure a 45% increase in fares over the last 5 years, while bus service hours have actually gone down since 2000.

"After 4 years of organizing in poor and working class communities, it's pretty clear to us that the reason people don't pay their fares is because they can't afford the rates," notes Kaur. She continues, "While TransLink has increased fares 3 times in the last 5 years, real wages for transit-dependent people in BC have dropped. Bus riders who struggle to pay cash fare certainly cannot pay the $173 'fare evasion' fine." 

Beth Grayer, BRU organizer, comments, "The BRU has received many reports from people who have been the targets of verbal intimidation and physical assault by SkyTrain police. The majority of these reports have come from Aboriginal people and people of colour, particularly women." With their expanded powers, the 82-member GVTA police force will only intensify racial profiling and attacks on low-income people in the transit system. We know that TransLink's real mandate for the GVTA police service is to enforce fares and not, as they claim, to provide safety to bus riders." 

"The BRU will be organizing hard to ensure that 2005 does not end the way it started. We will fight for lower fares and an end to the criminalization of bus riders" promises Grayer.


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Press Contacts:

Zailda Chan 604. 215. 2775

Jennifer Efting 604.255.4745
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