Questions about security at Toronto City Hall were raised again on Thursday after a news conference held by Mayor John Tory and Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne was disrupted by the piercing screams of a woman demanding to speak with Tory.
The woman’s screams erupted from outside the room and brought the Thursday morning news conference to a standstill.
Both Wynne and Tory’s eyes grew wide as security guards placed the room on a brief lockdown.
The woman was standing just outside the mayor’s office, shouting about Toronto Community Housing and a “bullet through her f---ing window.”
Security was eventually able to defuse the situation and calm the woman down but Wynne had already left for question period at Queen’s Park.
When he returned to the podium to answer questions, Tory said that incidents like this one happen “quite frequently” but that there’s no need to increase security.
“I don’t want to start saying that we’re going to start doing things based on this one incident you’ve heard and seen today,” he said. “It happens quite frequently and it’s one of those things where what you hope you can do is solve the problem and calm the person as opposed to having some reaction that says the building needs to be closed up.”
Last fall, the mayor’s executive committee weighed the possibility of increasing security measures at the building.
City staff at the time outlined a number of measures they felt could make city hall a more secure place, including the use of metal detectors, bag checks and X-ray machines.
City hall currently operates under an open-door policy, where anyone can walk in or out without hassle, but security guards do monitor the entrances and are regularly stationed outside the mayor’s office.
Tory has been firm on trying to achieve a “balance” between accessibility and security and reiterated that stance after today’s ordeal.
“One of the things that came up during the discussion of security measures at city hall was the fact that people can come to my office and come to the offices of the councillors with the problems that they have with the city government. I think that’s a good thing about the building… (But) some people get upset for a variety of reasons,” he said.
“People come in that are disturbed about something that’s happened in their lives – many times it’s problems that don’t have anything to do with the city government – but they come here because this is an accessible place, because they know often times, with many problems people face in their lives, they start with city hall.”
City staff have estimated that additional security staffing would cost an extra $774,000 annually, while the other proposed security measures would require an extra $500,000 in one-time capital funding.
The woman involved in today’s incident is not facing any charges, officials said.
