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One time I was walking to Yorkwoods Library. I saw a small group of teens wearing school uniforms fooling around outside the Yorkwoods Theater. I passed amongst them when they sort of surrounding me. I looked down & ignored them when I heard some racial slurs targeting me. Out of the blue, I felt that some of these teenagers were throwing rocks at me. I walked faster into the Library when they continued throwing rocks at me.
When inside, I immediately told this Yorkwoods staff at the front counter what just happened. This staff named ''Jay'' did not care much & simply told me to report the incident to another staff. She refused to call the police as I requested.
I called the police using a payphone. Of course, our Toronto Police Service also acting quite indifferent & routine & they would not say how long they could send in police officers on site. I said I would wait as long as I could.
Going back inside Yorkwoods Library, found the staff person eventually to file the incident report. Then nothing as if this was something they experience multiple times EVERY DAY & THIS WAS NORMAL! I was not even given a copy of this ''incident report'' even after I asked for it multiple times.
After about 90 minutes doing what I needed to do, the police still no where in sight. I left.
Then I somehow found out later that the police finally showed up many hours later (THEY EXPECT WE WOULD WAIT FOR THEM FOR HALF A DAY TO TELL THEM THE SAME THING I DID TO 911!) Apparently they left because I was not there AND NO YORKWOODS STAFF BOTHERED TO TELL THESE POLICE TO CONTACT ME AT HOME AS I REQUESTED WHEN I FILED THE INCIDENT REPORT WITH THIS LIBRARY & WHEN I LEFT!)
WHAT AN INDIFFERENT & NO HELP ATTITUDE WITH OUR TORONTO PUBLIC LIBRARY STAFF & THE TORONTO POLICE SERVICE ( MY CONCLUSION IS BASED ON NOT A SINGLE OR EVEN A FEW INCIDENTS BUT ON SO MANY OUT OF MY PERSONAL EXPERENCE FOR DECADES)
Country of complaint: Canada
Around 9:30 am on Dec 23, 2025, I had no choice but to approach & bother live staff for help after multiple fax failures with their all-in one machines accessible free for members of the public on site.
After being kicked around for minutes, I finally found myself being crossed examined & very much interrogated by a staff person named "Joanna". My request was very simple------fax out a one-page bank application to a local fax number. Joanna looked over my document repeatedly while questioning me. I told her if their machines are not disabled the fax feature for at least months, I do not want to bother someone like her to begin with for a very simple tiny favour.
I am not a technical person & to me personally, this small request would not take more than 10-15 seconds & it is free in terms of paper & ink other than maybe 2 cents of electricity to help a real, no risk favour of a real human being in need.
Instead , Joanna would spend minutes interrogating me, looking through my personal information over & over again including my name, account number, the dollar figure on the document, name of my bank, etc. & after all these, Joanna would still turned down my request & told me to go somewhere else to send my fax.
If I remember correctly, Joanna also tried to convince me that they do not have a fax machine or they cannot send fax for clients, & so on.
Well, my understanding is this is an open to the public city service facility. We taxpayers fund their payroll & all benefits that they & their families enjoy. All equipment & resources are also funded by each & all of us taxpayers.
If they really have rules like refusing & turning away people with legit reasons & needs for assistance from NOT THEIR OWN PERSONAL BUT PUBLIC EQUIPMENT & RESOURCES, then these rules are all ridiculous & insulting to members of the public who require help from these people & to us taxpayers. Joanna appeared to be telling me that they have rules preventing them from helping even little things for whatever reason! AMAZING INSULTING RULES!
Joanna also put up much resistance & more of her interrogations when I requested for her name, availability & name of her supervisor, & so on.
I realize for decades that this is no longer the Canada I fall in love with 40 years ago. I am now stuck in this city of increasing heartlessness, alienation, interpersonal indifference & uncaring & no help attitude & aptitude amongst so many of us. I am incapable of moving elsewhere again, not even to relocate to perhaps other part of Canada that I could still find the very much historical Canadian humanity & caring & values...
I received no response at all from Paul Johnson, City Manager of our City of Toronto for extended period of time regarding my following email communication to his office.
I realize for decades that this is no longer the Canada I fall in love with 40 years ago. I am now stuck in this city of increasing heartlessness, alienation, interpersonal indifference & uncaring & no help attitude & aptitude amongst so many of us, our city civic servants, bureaucrats, officials inclusive.
My understanding is this is a public city office. We taxpayers fund their payroll & all benefits that they & their families enjoy in exchange for their commitments, devotion & duties to serve & help people of Toronto as PUBLIC SERVANTS, AT WHATEVER LEVEL!
I am incapable of moving elsewhere again, not even to relocate to perhaps other part of Canada that I could still find the very much historical Canadian humanity & caring & treasured traditional values...
"Dear Mr. Johnson,
Please direct me to the proper office for complaints involving Toronto Public Libraries who I believe fail to provide a normal, safe & quiet for most part of the 15 years.
I feel that TPL management has targeted me as a trouble maker who keep complaining about excessive ongoing loud noises, disruptive/aggressive behaviors, verbal & physical violence against me, incompetency of TPL management & staff to take initiatives handling continued loud noises, TPL supporting of a rule defying youth culture & frontline senior manager & branch head abusing their authority, making bad & biased judgement & sanctioning against patrons not to their liking based on one-sided lies with no witness or evidence, TPL muting my complaints on facebook, TPL City Librarian disallowed my attempts to contact the TPL Board of Directors, & much much more as I have experienced while dealing with the TPL bureaucracy since 2009.
Thank you in advance"