A Saturday evening forum focused on Calgary Transit safety will allow the public to share concerns directly with police and one city councillor. Read More
The event comes days after a woman was shoved into a transit shelter downtown by an unknown man
The event comes days after a woman was shoved into a transit shelter downtown by an unknown man
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A Saturday evening forum focused on Calgary Transit safety will allow the public to share concerns directly with police and one city councillor.
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Ward 5 Coun. Raj Dhaliwal organized the event, in part due to community “uproar” after a woman was grabbed, shaken aggressively and shoved at the City Hall CTrain station several days ago.
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Several people were on the platform nearby as the suspect let go of the woman and stormed off. The suspect was caught about 25 minutes later in East Village.
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A video of the incident circulated online, and the Calgary Police Service charged Braydon Joseph James French, 31, of Calgary with attempted robbery.
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The ordeal led to questions from the community, Dhaliwal told Postmedia on Saturday.
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“How can you feel safe? What is happening … if it could happen (at) city hall right in front of the municipal government is, what is the city doing? What is CPS doing?” asked Dhaliwal.
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The forum, set for 5 to 7 p.m. at the Genesis Centre in the city’s northeast, is meant to answer those questions and more.
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Dhaliwal said it’s about “having everybody there to provide answers, clarifications, education.”
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“These things do happen, unfortunately, but lawmakers are aware of this. We are working hard, law enforcement agencies are working hard,” said Dhaliwal.
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Over the course of about a month beginning Feb. 17, CPS, bylaw and Transit Public Safety laid 230 charges, fulfilled 1,464 arrest warrants and issued 1,060 tickets as part of a joint operation.
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Dubbed Safer Calgary, the program aims to curb crime and social disorder in public spaces, including on and around transit hubs.
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“Downtown safety is very, very critical and vital to transit safety perception … because downtown is built around LRT,” said Dhaliwal.
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Transit safety, particularly on CTrains, was cited as the top fear by 17 per cent of respondents to a survey conducted for CPS from May to July last year.
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However, violent crime as a primary concern fell from 23 per cent in 2022 to 16 per cent in 2024 according to the same survey — which was conducted by phone by Illumina Research Partners, interviewing 1,000 people.
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With Calgary’s municipal election set for October, Dhaliwal doesn’t see transit safety going away as an issue for voters.
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The focus should be on getting to a point where “every Calgarian (can) feel that transit is safe,” he said.
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Dhaliwal is expected to run for re-election in Ward 5.
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“I think there’s (a lot) of work to be done still, and I just don’t want to leave it halfway and not fulfill my commitment to the residents,” said Dhaliwal.
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