Saskatoon Subway restaurant cuts hours due to safety concerns
Mandy Thibodeau is worried about the safety of her employees at the Subway on 22nd Street and 2nd Avenue in downtown Saskatoon.
“I can't get staff to work past dark, and I don't expect them to,” she said.
“We've had too many assaults and it's terrifying working downtown.”
As owner of the restaurant, she’s made the decision to shorten the hours of operation and is now locking the doors to the restaurant after dark to keep employees safe from what she says are dangerous people who are drunk or on drugs.
“You don't know what kind of weapons they're carrying, what their reaction is going to be,” she said.
“If I have someone come in here and they come to steal something or [they’re] harassing customers, I politely asked them to leave, they will refuse, and then they will get aggressive a lot of the time.”
Thibodeau says the situation has worsened in the last month or two.
“It's always been bad downtown, but just not like this,” she said.
“It's frustrating that we have to do that because we're losing a lot of business.”
She says initially there was no help from police.
“I would call the communications, they would tell me they can't do anything because the person is already out of my store because they would just run and grab stuff and leave,” she said.
“They wouldn't tell the police, they wouldn't put a report in, wouldn't put a call in, so it's the same people doing these things over and over again.”
During Monday’s city council meeting, Saskatoon Police Chief Troy Cooper said calls for service have increased by about 8,000 this year, while social disorder calls are going up about 7 per cent every year.
He spoke to city council about the confidence he has in the alternative response officer (ARO) program.
“They’re really well designed for business area type locations in the city where there’s pedestrian traffic in particular,” he said.
It started as a pilot project with six unarmed special constables who patrolled the streets primarily in downtown and Riversdale, freeing up police officers for higher-risk calls, and the Saskatoon Board of Police Commissioners has approved making it a permanent program.
Cooper says ARO’s receive trauma-informed training and training around addictions and homelessness, and can provide opportunities to connect people to social service providers.
“They also work in the same area often enough that they get to know business owners, and can hear from them personally what their challenges are, and try to come up with plans to address those challenges.”
Thibodeau says more patrol officers downtown would help.
“We just need it to be dealt with, and to be taken seriously,” said Thibodeau.
“When I call for help I shouldn't have to beg on the phone for someone to come and help me. They should just put a call out; have a police officer come right away.”
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
Indian envoy warns of 'big red line,' days after charges laid in Nijjar case
India's envoy to Canada insists relations between the two countries are positive overall, despite what he describes as 'a lot of noise.'
Stormy Daniels describes meeting Trump during occasionally graphic testimony in hush money trial
With Donald Trump sitting just feet away, Stormy Daniels testified Tuesday at the former president's hush money trial about a sexual encounter the porn actor says they had in 2006 that resulted in her being paid to keep silent during the presidential race 10 years later.
U.S. paused bomb shipment to Israel to signal concerns over Rafah invasion, official says
The U.S. paused a shipment of bombs to Israel last week over concerns that Israel was approaching a decision on launching a full-scale assault on the southern Gaza city of Rafah against the wishes of the U.S.
Former homicide detective explains how police will investigate shooting outside Drake's Bridle Path mansion
Footage from dozens of security cameras in the area of Drake’s Bridle Path mansion could be the key to identifying the suspect responsible for shooting and seriously injuring a security guard outside the rapper’s sprawling home early Tuesday morning, a former Toronto homicide detective says.
Northern Ont. woman makes 'eggstraordinary' find
A chicken farmer near Mattawa made an 'eggstraordinary' find Friday morning when she discovered one of her hens laid an egg close to three times the size of an average large chicken egg.
Susan Buckner, who played spirited cheerleader Patty Simcox in 'Grease,' dead at 72
Susan Buckner, best known for playing peppy Rydell High School cheerleader Patty Simcox in the 1978 classic movie musical 'Grease,' has died. She was 72.
Jeremy Skibicki has 'uphill battle' to prove he's not criminally responsible in Winnipeg killings: legal analysts
Accused killer Jeremy Skibicki could have a challenging time convincing a judge that he is not criminally responsible for the deaths of four Indigenous women, a legal analyst says.
Bye-bye bag fee: Calgary repeals single-use bylaw
A Calgary bylaw requiring businesses to charge a minimum bag fee and only provide single-use items when requested has officially been tossed.
Alcohol believed to be a factor in boating incident after 2 men die: N.S. RCMP
Two Nova Scotia men are dead after a boat they were travelling in sank in the Annapolis River in Granville Centre, N.S., on Monday.