Toronto Public Library reviews and complaints

Ever since the shooting incident in the parking lot a few years back, Yorkwoods Public Library started getting out contacted security guards on top of their existing ( & already quite useless when needed) library security guard & eqipping their staff with secrtet agent style voice communication earpieces/devices, etc. (TPL senior managemnent & their Board of Directors think they are running some sort of penal institutions rather than a community service ?)

One Yorkwoods emplyee once said to me that these white shirt outsourcing security guards are supposed to be more ''technical''. I agree a lot in terms of at least 1 such white shirt female security guard has been very ''technical'' in not doing her ''security'' duties & ruinning a supposedly quiet library envirinment with her extended social gossip talks with supposedly on duty library staff for extended period of time, laughing & joking frequently, totally ignoring other library users working/studying around them. Much Shame

Another male white shirt security guard even worse in my personal opinion. He kept eyeballing me when I came in, checked out items, looked through library items, etc. whenever he was nearby me. He kept walking by & coming very close to me looking at me through a glass wall while he could have easily walked by in front & checked the room I was in for any unusual things / activities instead of coming virtually right next to me multiple times during my library stay & starred at me in an harrassing/intimidating way.

Furthermore, a few times he simply came & knocked at the tabe & looked down at me in a bossy/authoritative manner when it was near library closing time while other staff normally give an non-intimidating verbal reminder or point to their watch, etc.

I have complainted about these to the Yorkwoods Senior Head Stephen Arnoz repeatedly & the white shirt haraassment continued. Perhaps to marginalized minority group & vocal people like myself are not welcomed to these public library people who have much power at their disposal to bully people they do not like

I have strong feelings & reasons to believe that Yorkwoods Service Manager Young Lak Jin has handed me an immediate guilty verdict & an unjustified heavy sanction based on unproven allegations without any evidence or witness as a retaliation against me for my 10-year long complaints about his incompetency, lies, bullying me & attitude against me. Instead of his usual ignoring, dragging, stalling & lying when dealing with me, Young Lak took full advantage & opportunity of an empty allegation against me. Young Lak Jin found me guilty & immediately suspended me for 2 months from Yorkwoods Library based simply on lies from 3 buddy youths who regarded me as their common enemy as I kept complaining about excessive loud noises , dirty talks, porn watching using library computers/wifi & foul languages involving them & many of their JMC schoolmates/friends. Many of my other online sharings have lots of full details about Young Lak's abusive use of his position of authority against someone who he dislikes strongly AND Toronto Public Library top management NEVER LAUNCH ANY REAL INVESTIGATION INTO THIS BUT KEEPS IGNORING ME IF NOT GIVING ME WITH THEIR FAKE ONE-SIDED FACTS

I once was experiencing washroom emergency walking close to Jane/Sheppard library . I was able to get attention of a staff inside locked doors but he did NOT let me go in to use the washroom because it was not opening time yet. This was 5 minutes before opening!

Then 2 female staff came to work & I told them I was having a washroom emergency. They went inside & NOTHING happened!

Door finally opened at 9am

These staff all know me as a regular customer & WOULD NOT let me use the washroom even when I had indicated to all 3 of them I has an emergency!
AND THIS WAS THE VERY FIRST & ONLY TIME I ASKED FOR HELP OF THIS NATURE! THEY WOULD NOT HELP A PERSON IN MEDICAL/HEALTH DISTRESS!

What an absence of human courtesy!

Is this how Toronto Public Library staff use their power to cause a potential personal & social humiliation to a person having an washroom emergency that he has very little or NO control over?

As I keep voicing out the many wrongs & incompetency within the Toronto Public Library bureaucracy online in writing, a Mabel Ho & her endorsing managers have put up censorship against my right to free speech & my freedom of free expression as guaranteed by the Canadian Charter of Rights & Freedoms for all of us. I really wonder if TPL can actually override our Canadian Constitution of free speech & some TPL frontline employees & management can mute a member of the public from voicing out continued concerns on Jane/Sheppard Library, Yorkwoods Library & a few frontline & senior TPL Managers & Directors.

Of course, TPL can continue to operate in their own black box complaint system during AND beyond 16 years already in my experiences. My complaints shall carry on & be shared in front of the public' eyes.

I also found that comments from the public ARE NOT ALLOWED In any of the City Librarian Vickery Bowles' reports, which to me are all so biased, positive only & one-sided showcase presentations ! There is no way to voice out at all on anything being reported by TPL City Librarian IN TERMS OF FEEDBACKS OR COMMENTS OR COUNTER-COMMENTS. This seems very much absolute censorship to me! So much similar to her office disallowing & blocking me to communicate to TPL Board in an official & more formal manner, NOT EVEN FOR A SILLY FIVE MINUTES AS STATED IN THEIR OWN TPL WEBSITE!

IS IT ALL ABNORMAL TO ASK FOR A SAFE & QUITE LIBRARY NOW? WHY DOES SOMEONE AMONGST US HAS TO KEEP FIGHTING FOR THIS FOR OVER 16 YEARS OR STILL FIGHTING?

Pretentious free speech is also very real in Canada, not just in the FAR EAST & other parts of our planet

As I have been voicing out what & how I have been experiencing much wrongs & incompetency concerning Toronto Public Library bureaucracy on Facebook in writing, Mabel Ho has put up a full TPL Facebook censorship by removing ALL MY POSTS ON FACEBOOK AND BANNING MY FUTURE POSTS
ON THEIR FACEBOOK PAGE.

I feel strongly that this TPL action is an open violation of my right to free speech & my freedom of free expression as guaranteed by the Canadian Charter of Rights & Freedom for all Canadians.

I really wonder if TPL can actually override our Canadian Constitution of free speech. A TPL frontline employee with probably top & middle management endorsing such censorship that serves nothing other than muting by force a member of the public from voicing out on-going concerns & much negative experience at jane/shepperd & yorkwoods libraries.

Of course, TPL can continue operating in their own black box complaint system for over 16 years already as I experienced it. My negative encounters & experience shall be shared & carry on in front of eyes of the public

I expressed my multiple concerns face to face to our Toronto City Librarian Vickery Bowles regarding Yorkwoods Library staff personnel having too much social interactions amongst themselves, their much resistance/reluctance performing their basic job duties properly & multiple attitude problems that I have encountered, etc.

3 brief email exchanges the next 2 days as follows:

"Ms. Bowles,

My apologies to talk to you at the end of your brief visit to the Jane/Sheppard Library this afternoon

Thank you for sparing your time & listening to my grievance about the Yorkwoods pop-up library that I have been witnessing & experiencing since JUly 9/21, 4-7 hours daily, 6 days a week

Stay Safe & best wishes "

"Dear Mr. xxxx,

It was good to speak with you today. I am following up with staff to investigate the issues you raised regarding the York Woods pop-up branch. Thank you for communicating your concerns.

I am glad to learn you are such as dedicated customer of the Toronto Public Library.

Sincerely

Vickery Bowles

City Librarian

Toronto Public Library

[protected]"

"Thank you for your quick reply, Ms. Bowles

Feel very free to let me know if more details are required.

Stay healthy & safe"

Of course, I never heard anything back from Vickery Bowles. This was so very disappointing as she was supposedly the very top of this Toronto Public Library bureaucracy & I complained to her personally & directly AND SHE STILL IGNORED MY COMPLASINTS.

I attempted to share this & my 15 years plus negative experience with Toronto Public Library to the Board of Directors of Toronto Public Library. I encountered one roadblock after another from the City Librarian office & her staff, The Secretary, Toronto Public Library Board, & so on.

On their own website, members of the public can request a 5-minute presentation to this rubber duck Board of Directors of theirs, however, in reality & in my opinion, what they say openly to the public is just another pretentious piece of welcoming of different voices & TPL senior management has full control of what & who can be filtered to the already quite useless Board of Directors.

Concerning my multiple complaints involving mainly denial by Toronto City Librarian Vickery Bowles & her associates of my communication request to voice out my complaints to the Toronto Public Library Board of Directors, refusal of a TPL staff to my emergency washroom request because it was still minutes from the library' s opening time, ongoing & recurring issues I have been experiencing with some staff, managers & Directors associated with Yorkwoods & Sheppard/Jane Library, I received from
Brian Daly, Director, Toronto Public Library Human Resources ''I am writing to provide you with the conclusions of the investigation we have conducted in response to the complaint you submitted against the City Librarian and other senior management staff at the Toronto Public Library. As we outlined in our earlier correspondence (attached below), we conducted an independent investigation and reported the conclusion of that investigation to the Chair of the Toronto Public Library Board...'' only after much delays & my sending out several respond reminders.

I was never informed, contacted, interviewed whatsoever regarding who, where, what, how this so called ''independent investigation'' or its what have you report/conclusion that I had no input, feedbacks or participation in any form. I never feel amazed & disappointed about this sort of total darkbox , non-transparent , one-sided say & do all operations of our quite arrogant & dictatorory Toronto Public Library & its several top management team members whom I have been dealing with for so many painful & hopeless years.

Brian Daly ignored my request to obtain a copy of his claimed ''independent investigation'' report for 13 months now. I do feel even without me asking, Toronto Public Library should have provided & disclosed to me with full details of such ''investigation'' of theirs ( IF THERE WAS EVER REALLY ONE) AND NOT EXCLUDING & IGNORING ME ALL TOGETHER IN THIS PROCESS.

Toronto Public Library NEVER GIVES ME CONFIDENCE OR TRUST THAT THEY WOULD GENUINELY TAKE MY MANY COMPLAINTS SERIOUSLY. THE TPL BUREAUCRACY ONLY PRETENDS THAT THEY DO AT A TOTALLY EMPTY AND SUPERFICIALLY LEVEL AS PER MY YEARS OF REPEATING NEGATIVE AND NIGHTMARE EXPERIENCES

I sent the following email to Brian Daly on Nov 13, 2023 when he continued to ignore my request:

''CARE TO ANSWER Mr. Daly ?

YOUR PAYROLL & BENEFITS ARE ON ON PUBLIC MONEY & YOU WORK FOR TAXPAYERS!

SHOW SOME DECENCY, RESPONSIBILITY & ACCOUNTABILITY!''

Toronto Public Library Branch Operations & Customer Experience Director Mohammed Hosseini-Ara has been threatening me with the ultimate one year full service excursion if I continued to post my ''personal attack'' complaints about my over 16 years of negative experiences relating to Yorkwoods Library & associated management personnel in social medias using their full names.

Perhaps Mr. Hosseini-Ara has been high up in the fish tank with a strong preference to hear only ''welcoming'' messages/feedbacks & does not realize that full names of top TPL management are public information accessible to the public not only on their own website but the sunshine list, etc. However superficial freedom of expression that this country still has, correct me if I am incorrect, it is ALL LEGITIMATE TO INCLUDE FULL NAMES IN OUR COMMUNICATIONS & COMPLAINTS, ESPECIALLY WITH PUBLIC OFFICIALS/EMPLOYEES.

Having said this, maybe Mr. Hosseini-Ara should consider ORDERING Queen's Park & the city to not disclose their names & other information to taxpayers & provide senior civil servants with powers to hand out stiff penalty to those who do not comply, especially those whose complaints & grievances are so factual & negative with names of arrogant & power abusive city bureaucrats that Mr. Hosseini-Ara termed ''personal attacks''.

Depending on individual interpretation, virtually all complaints could be considered personal attack as they are targeted experience & criticism, using name or not. All my complaints are involving people I have personally been dealing with when they were supposedly performing certain duties/services & NOTHING about them being a father/mother, son/daughter, a person off work.

Mr. Hosseini-Ara, Yorkwoods Services Manager Young Lark Jin, Yorkwoods Area Manager Sarah Bradley,
Yorkwoods Library Senior Branch Head Stephen Arnoz have been the covering for each other four since October 31/23 in forcing, pushing an already socially & financially marginalized member of the public into further isolation & deterrence of using our tax funded public library & resources as he continues to voice out & share his 16 years of absolute disappointments & intimidations with Toronto Public Library

The refusal to help incident that happened at this Riverdale library on Nov 29/24 is merely a tip of an iceberg of the Toronto Public Library bureaucracy & relatively heartless & selective rules/policies overrule humanity culture based on my personal grievance & all negative experiences with Toronto Public Library, top to bottom. This little girl is super fortunate to get at least some media attention & an obvious meaningless ''apology'' from TPL within days comparing to all the disappointments, harassments, intimidations, insults, refusal to really listen or help that I have encountered for over 16 years with this arrogant institution. Countless of much more serious & on-going occurrences have simply ignored by not only TPL Board of Directors, but also the Mayor, City Manager, Ombudsman, Integrity Commissioner, city councillor & the media by and large.

I absolutely realize that many traditional Canadian values such as compassion, genuine help to a needy fellow human being, personal integrity, honesty, sense of fairness & common justice are already long gone & disappearing for decades & seeming ONLY EXIST IN POLITICAL SPEECHES & PUBLICATIONS FOR PEOPLE TO SELF INDULGE & CHEER ABOUT, AT LEAST IN & AROUND TORONTO AS I HAVE NOT EXPERIENCE IN OTHER PARTS OF CANADA FOR OVER 40 YEARS

In my one & a half decades of dealing with Toronto Public Library & their many so called Directors & Managers with fancy titles , I have been personally experiencing much incompetency, cunning acts & tactics, dragging & ignoring strategies, lying, bully & even censorship, threats & oppression from high management of Toronto Public Library simply because I keep voicing out ( I really do not think I would get any help at all from whoever EVEN IF I CRY like this little girl) my legitimate grievances & on-going concerns & their total failure to provide a very basic safe & quiet area for people who find excessive ongoing human noises intrusive & annoying & hostile/aggressive library users disruptive & unsafe to be nearby

The Toronto Public Library Branch Operations & Customer Experience Director Mohammed Hosseini-Ara has been successful in his censorship & threatening in pushing an already socially & financially marginalized senior into further isolation by avoiding using our tax funded public library & resources. 16 years of absolute disappointments & intimidations is enough.

Sarah Bradley of Toronto Public Library told me she would probably need about week to assemble a team, do some interviews, etc regarding my appeal for an allegation & immediate retaliation & sanction handed to me by Yorkwoods Service Manager Young Lak Jin against me based only on lies with no evidence or any witness. Sarah Bradley also told me Stephen Arnoz does not have training on conflict resolution & so on, so my request to do a cross-examination with all parties involved to find out who is lying about what, etc. cannot be done even all these people were all on location when I called Sarah Bradley.

I complained after 2 weeks hearing nothing from Sarah Bradley re my appeal

''Your appeal process SHOULD HAVE STARTED WHEN YOU RECEIVED MY LETTER AS PER OUR PHONE COMMUNICATION ON OCT 31

OVER 2 WEEKS GONE & YOU FAILED TO ACT TO RESTORE MY INNOCENCE?''

In her responding email on Nov 13/23, Sarah Bradley said ''... wished to proceed with the appeal before I started the process.''

I received an appeal decision letter on Nov 15/23 in an email attachment.

Over 2 weeks time including 13 days for no nothing waiting ( Sarah Bradley claimed she did call me that I did not receive or seeing a missed call message & she also claimed to have sent me an email which conveniently '' bounced back'' while I was waiting all anxiously while ALL HER OTHER EMAILS APPARENTLY WENT THROUGH WITHOUT ANY ISSUES), then it took Sarah Bradley ONLY 2 days to conclude & complete her assembling a team (if any), interviewing (if any), & so on (if any) & told me my guilty verdict & punishment stayed as in their eyes the 3 lying JCM students seemed much more credible than a socially & financially marginalized member of the public who keeps complaining & voicing out about the TPL bureaucracy & incompetence

We are more or less double/triple talkers with different people under various circumstances, however, I feel that someone on public payroll who is in an entrusted & powerful position, feeding on our taxpayers' funds & acting in an oppressive & discriminating manner against someone who has not much options but to subject to continuous harassments, retaliations & much stresses in order to access public library resources almost daily since 2009 is hugely inappropriate ,questionable & shameful.

Yorkwoods Service Manager Young Lak Jin has been lying to me other than being consistently incompetent handling issues I brought to his attention for a decade.

One morning, as I was doing my work quietly at Yorkwoods Library, Young Lak Jine just showed up where I was, walking towards me & acting in such a bullish manner, totally disrespectful of my privacy & starting to talk loud about my recent "complaint". Alsi, he was disclosing my name openly while there was somebody else present EVEN AFTER I SAID TO HIM " I DO NOT WANT TO TALK NOW & HERE"

I insisted to go somewhere private, then he starting NOT HELPING ME OR RESOLVING MY COMPLAINT BUT LECTURING ME ABOUT PROCEDURE. GOING ABOVE HIM & SO ON. I left

Amongst the many inappropriate bullying comments & blames Young Lak Jin was giving me in person, I have to respond to his last (he said it in a strongly agitated & blaming tone) "You don't own this computer!"

I have 3 points of argument about this inappropriate Young Lak blaming on me about TPL public computers:

1. I follow the first come, first serve rule & unlike some others I have witnessed, I DID NOT BULLY/HARASS other people who took my preferred PC

2. I do not personally own any TPL computer, & Young Lak DOES? WHY HE WAS ACTING NOT ONLY BLAMING ME FOR COMPLAINING TO HIS MANAGER INSTEAD OF HIM & HAVE A PREFERRED PC LOCATION IN A HIGHLY CONTROLLING TONE?

3. In a large sense, taxpayers pay for these TPL computers & NEARLY ALL LIBRARY MATERIAL & PAYROLLS, consequently, YES, I SUBSIDIZED MAYBE A TINY LITTLE SCREW OF A TPL COMPUTER, YOUNG LAK A SMALL SCREW AS WE ARE TORONTO TAXPAYERS!

I am sharing my strong & ongoing negative feeling & experience at the Yorkwoods library that I find highly discriminating relating to continued & inappropriate use of power by at least one Yorkwoods staff

I have noticed I have been the first & ONLY one got booked off in the 4 pc station area for 2-3 months. I started to see that it was almost always by Yorkwoods staff Jay who did the new booking.

I have been discussing & expressing of my concerns with Yorkwoods Senior Branch Head Stephan several times that I feel very strongly that Jay has been using her power of her library staff position to agitate & upset me by always booking off the computer that I was using, I have been watching & observing Jay did the bookings & seeing the sticky with my computer number & booked time.

Stephen told me that Toronto Public Library IT people said whichever computer had the longest booking got selected first for new booking. I told Stephan that that was not the case at all. He kept giving me excuses again

Then I have better prove that this Jay staff was abusing her power to keep booking me off of my computer. I spoke with Chris a few days after Stephan 's email that Jay booked me off from the 4 pc station #505-508. I moved to another available pc & returned to the original one I was using about 70 minutes after. At least 2 people remained who were there before my being booked off. So technically, if any of the 4 pcs gets new booking, mine should NOT be the first one, right? WRONG, less that one hour since I returned, Jay booked me off again! The 2 people who were there for at least 2-3 hours already STAYED!

No matter what I tried, coming late, logging off so that my pc would NOT be selected as having the longest booking already in case of a new booking coming, & so on. Jay still ALWAYS choose the one pc I was using for new booking request. NO ESCAPE!

I found this highly distasteful & annoying because of one power abusing staff who somehow disliking me

Also, I find Stephan acting absolutely defensive & protective of others whenever I sought out for his assistance in terms of excessive noises, library user who would not let other people use an express PC when their session is finished, people coughing/sneezing without covering their months, disruptive behavior, about Jay, & so on. ALWAYS EXCUSES!

I am completely disappointed that Jay can act out her library power & treating me in an highly discriminating manner REPEATEDLY & that Stephan has been protective of her & keeps giving me excuses after excuses.

My Dec 8/23 initial email with a simple & straight-forward access of information request to TPL that received NO RESPONSE until Dec 18 ONLY AFTER my second email dated Dec 16 asking for a response

''Director Mitchell,

Please provide full process & details of your Freedom of Information policy

I thank you in advance''

I was receiving ambiguous & confusing responses regarding fees, waiver of fees for low income families, copy of TPL access of information BLANK form, further clarifications & answers, etc as a result of unclear answers from Director Shawn Mitchell of TPL Policy, Planning & Performance Management

Finally I sent the following email response to this much agitated Director dated Dec 21/23:

''If I were in your position, when a member of the public requested full details of making freedom of information request, I would have provided FULL INFORMATION DETAILS from PHYSICAL WRITTEN POLICY ( as per your cyberattack diablement) including forms, process, procedure, timeline, what are available, what not, how to this & that, where to send this & that, fees & charges & ALL RELATED INFO, how long documents/information are being kept & so on (versus ignoring initial written request until the requestor enquired again after awaiting beyond reasonable time for a response & merely give out piecemeal information which is generating more clarifying requests for proper info or verification & then blame the requestor wasting staff time which is taxpayers' paid & requestor is in fact asking all legit & rightful questions which shall be answered properly & fully & PATIENTLY especially in the ''Director'' position playing a senior PUBLIC SERVANT ROLE)

When a member of the public requested whatever form in PLAIN TEXT with legit reason provided voluntarily, it only takes a few seconds copy & paste the ENTIRE WHOLE FORM to an email response (versus a partial plain text ''form'' & much more time being wasted to ask for clarification & request for same form in its ENTIRETY sent in plain text & blame the requestor wasting staff time while in fact the requestor's time is being wasted repeatedly as his questions were NOT BEING UNDERSTOOD & ANSWERED PROPERLY FROM THE BEGINNING.

If this communication is making you annoyed & upset, I AM TEN TIMES MORE ANNOYED & UPSET, ''DIRECTOR''! ''

I have been experiencing dictatorship style like Toronto Public Library top management in threatening me to shut up with my voicing out & sharing of my ''unwelcoming'' experiences & criticisms about them or else. They had disallowed me in my attempts to communicate with their Board of Directors & I feel their increasing oppressive tactics & attitudes to make me mute & submissive

Many of us give up much to come to Canada because of fears of the powerful being everything correct what they do, everything they say is the absolute truth & right & their intolerance of different voices or being criticized. Hard to believe this is something that we simply could not run away from, not even in North America. So very sad...

Was there a proper tender process for Toronto Public Library's " third-party security experts" re cyber incident? Who decided to hire these "experts" who may be another form of big waste of taxpayers' money on their whatever extensive & expensive security upgrades, consultations, & so on.

How come one of the largest PUBLIC LIBRARY systems seems to keep operating inside their own black box in handling this cyber attack incident for over 2 weeks now. TPL has been so non-transparent in their dealings with my complaints for over 15 years & being so very protective of one another, covering their own incompetence & lacking of decency or accountability to admit even some REAL wrongs of theirs!

Toronto Public Library - a name of strange and backward places. I went to Agincourt Library, typed and tried to print. A pop-up windows asking for library card number and pin, I entered a few times, did not work, so frustrating. Went to the front desk for help, and the front desk said 'We know the problem and it's already escalated." I went back to the same library an hour later. Same problem, couldn't print.

Went back there a week later. Same problem. Talked to the librarian, still the same problem, escalated to the management, same problem. These nefarious idiots don't care, don't know any courtesy to flip a reply to the complaint. It's a very disappointing mix of some communities in the name of diversity. Worthless.

Library's PCs are old and dirty, Wi-Fi is a charity from Bell. This is the picture of the libraries of the richest city of one of the richest countries in this fake world.

It clearly says the gross incompetency of the shameless management, and City Mayor Stupid John Tory, and the hypocrite city councilors.

And which idiot says DEPLETING Toronto is the best city on this earth? Go to Toronto Public Libraries.