The recurring problems of women’s safety on the TTC

The dangers that women face on a daily basis

Liz Sucharov Contributor

Abby Roizman Contributor

The Toronto Transit Commission (TTC) is progressively becoming more unsafe by the day. The rate of incidents and attacks committed beneath our city is rampantly rising. Assaults are up 9.4 percent in the City of Toronto since last year, according to the TPS public safety data portal. The TTC poses a potential safety risk to all who take it; however, it is women who fall victim to the majority of these attacks and incidents reported. This year, stories emerged on the news about women being brutally attacked and assaulted while taking the subway.

A few notable incidents from this past year include women being doused in flammable liquid and set on fire, sexually assaulted and harassed, physically assaulted, and stabbed. Two of the women in these accidents succumbed to their injuries and died. On April 17th, 2022, a woman was shoved onto the subway tracks. Fortunately, she pinned herself against the wall in time for the subway to pass and sustained no life-threatening injuries. TTC workers arrived thirty minutes after this occurrence. The TTC responded to this incident stating that the woman “chose to stand close to the edge of the platform and failed to pay attention to her surroundings.” Sophie Cockett, a grade 12 North Toronto student, said, “it makes me feel vulnerable. Attacks like these are common, and the TTC hasn’t strived to prevent women from becoming victims.”

Beatrice Passmore, another grade 12 student, stated that “it makes me fear for my life and other women’s.” You never know who you’ll encounter. Being a teenage girl amplifies the feeling of anxiety because women are often targets.

The safety of women is threatened daily on the subway. Many female students at NT take the TTC regularly as their primary form of transportation. Passmore states that she and her friends have frequently undergone different forms of harassment within their history of taking the TTC, including physical and sexual assault, being chased, public flashing, and hate crimes. Passmore had to file a police report due to being threatened with physical and sexual violence while taking the TTC. She reports that “It messes with your head. Many friends have texted me as they were taking the TTC to keep track of their location because they felt unsafe. What scares me is that if these people wanted to hurt me, they would be able to. There would be no one to stop it. Other riders don’t ever do anything, and I don’t expect them to. I expect some form of security onboard.” She says she is “always on the lookout for anything suspicious that could be potentially dangerous to [her] and [she takes] all of these precautions so that people don’t approach [her]. However, these things sometimes don’t work.” Natasha Bernstein, a grade 12 student at NT shared that a “man flashed me on the bus once, and I just froze. The terror and shock get a hold of you, it’s traumatizing.” Amelia Gragg, another grade 12 NT student who is a victim of harassment on the TTC, says to “ask any woman if they’ve ever been assaulted in any way while taking public transit. They’ll most likely say yes.”

Women at NT want measures to be put in place to make them feel safer. Passmore expressed that “there need to be solutions so people can feel safe, instead of just forgetting about it until it happens again.” Cockett thinks “there’s a lack of enforcement of safety, and it’s left to the public’s humanity to not attack, assault, or harass anyone.” She believes “accidents shouldn’t happen more than once,” and that when in the TTC stations, “there is no obvious choice of where to go or who to ask for help.” As for ways to improve, Cockett suggested adding “obvious emergency stations in each subway station that host qualified medical staff, police, and TTC managers so that if anyone needs assistance, people know exactly where to go and can be assisted immediately.” Creating rising barriers is another idea. Although expensive, if the TTC blocked all access to empty tracks, it would eliminate the worry of passengers falling or being pushed off the platform. The TTC should also have “special constables that ride the TTC with the passengers” so that incidents on the train are dealt with by trained employees instead of daily TTC riders.

If Toronto wants to be a city that offers a good quality of life to its citizens, an intersectional effort involving municipal, provincial, and community members is needed. As a public service organization that is greatly used by many women including NT female students, the TTC should focus on educating the public, increasing safety staff and protocol, and involving the community in the creation of solutions to ensure people can ride smoothly and safely.