Toronto Public Library reviews and complaints

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.

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!

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.