As the consulting company hired by Mayor Rob Ford to find services to slash in Toronto continues its search, it has found a new target: public libraries.
Frankly, if you want evidence to show that current policies at city hall are just a continuation of the "Common Sense Revolution" fostered on us by former Ontario premier Mike Harris, this is it.It was back in 1999 that I wrote a column calling for the protection of the Todmorden Room Library, which is located in the East York Community Centre on Pape Avenue.It was one of many libraries that were threatened with being cut using the exact same set of rationalizations that we are facing today.What many don't realize is that the attack on the public library system 12 years ago and today are driven by right-wing neo-conservative ideology.It may come as a surprise to many, but there is surprisingly strong right-wing political movement that is calling for the end of the public library service on a global basis.The argument for this, not surprisingly, is based upon a free market place model, that views public libraries as being failed socialist experiments just waiting to be thrown in the dust bin of history. Public libraries, it's argued, are wasteful of the taxpayers' money, compete unfairly with the private sector, and are inherently inefficient because they have no motivation to be innovative. So as a result we have our other mayor, Rob Ford's brother and Etobicoke councillor Doug Ford, making public comments that there are more libraries in Etotobicoke than Tim Hortons coffee outlets, despite the fact this is untrue.The problem is that this is only the tip of the anti-library propaganda war that is being rolled out to convince people that it's in their interest to reduce the number of libraries in Toronto.Over the up-coming months we will be told that libraries are full of obsolete books, empty of patrons, full of kids playing video games on the computers, that librarians are overpaid, and that there are too many librarians. However, I think, what is most telling was the off-hand account made by Doug Ford regarding the announcement that Canadian author, playwright and poet Margaret Atwood was joining the movement to save our libraries. Atwood, as you probably know, is the author of 13 novels, nine short story collections, and 15 books of poetry, nine books of non-fiction, and six children's books.She has received more than 55 awards for her writing, including the Booker prize, and 17 honourary degrees, including Harvard, and is recognized as being instrumental in defining a distinctly Canadian voice in world literature. Doug Ford, when hearing that she was mounting a campaign to save Toronto's public libraries said that he had never heard of her and wouldn't recognize her if he walked past her. Having said that, he then proceeds to tell Atwood, a well-known political activist and environmentalist, to mind her own business.That's the threat aimed at public libraries in Toronto today thanks to the brothers Ford.