Another recent spike of bear spray incidents in Saskatoon has renewed calls for added safety measures from the city’s bus operators.
Amalgamated Transit Union (ATU) Local 615 president Darcy Pederson says the city needs to do more to protect operators and riders after bear spray was used three times on city buses Tuesday evening.
One incident involved a group of youth spraying a passenger before fleeing on foot.
Last weekend, Saskatoon police said they had to respond to 10 incidents of bear spray being used. One of them happened once again on a city bus. Two women sprayed a group of people on the bus, prior to the group chasing the suspects off the bus.
According to a news release, all remaining people on the bus appeared to be suffering from the effects of bear spray and were assessed at the scene by paramedics.
Saskatoon police told CTV News officers responded to 31 calls of bear spray being used in January, an average of one call per day.
“It’s the weapon of choice now,” Pederson said. “It used to be knives. Now it’s bear spray and bear spray is more effective to deal with an entire crowd of people on a bus. You spray it in a bus and you’re getting everybody, including the operator.”
In effort to combat escalating violence on transit buses, the city announced a transit frontline employee safety plan last June, which is centered around nine initiatives — enhancing security, improve internal processes, employee training, augmenting mental health support for employees following an incident and strengthening coordination with emergency services.
“All of this with the goal to build for a safer culture here and improve the rider experience and provide more opportunities for people riding the bus to feel safer; more comfortable,” Saskatoon Transit director Mike Moellenbeck said at the news conference announcing the new initiative.
In a statement sent to CTV News on Friday, Moellenbeck said there has been a reduction in the number of incidents per month over the latter half of 2024.
“We have targeted the routes where there have been more frequent disturbances. A greater presence of security and community support officers, who are trained to de-escalate situations and help someone experiencing a crisis do make a difference,” Moellenbeck said. “Also, there have been recent incidents where police have made arrests, and in at least one of those cases, the court has banned a person from riding Transit buses.”
Bear spray is currently regulated by Health Canada’s Pest Management Regulatory Agency. One of the regulations requires retailers, like Bass Pro Shops or Canadian Tire, to maintain records of sales, including names and addresses of people buying bear spray. Bear spray is also available online, and in some other less popular locations.
CTV News spoke with the owner of a convenient store in Pleasant Hill which regularly sold bear spray as of one month ago and only stopped selling the product after police asked him not to stock it any longer.
As part of the safety plan, the Saskatoon Fire Department said it would be visible at bus terminals and on bus routes where incidents have occurred starting July 1, 2024.
Pederson said more is needed to keep transit buses from being a target for bear spray.
“The city needs to keep order. We need to keep order within our busses. We need to make these busses safe,” Pederson said. “I would suggest transit police would be a good addition to what we already have.”
