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The head of a union that represents TTC workers says his members did not receive a warning to be on alert prior to a terrorism suspect being killed in a police takedown in Strathroy.
TTC Spokesperson Brad Ross previously said that the transit agency had issued a “See something, say something” vigilance notice to all staff after being made aware of a non-specific threat on Wednesday morning but in a news release issued on Friday ATU Local 113 President Bob Kinnear said that front-line workers were not included in the correspondence. .
“We’re not saying the alert was not issued. We’re saying we can’t find any frontline workers who received it,” Kinnear said. “I have spoken with dozens of workers, none of whom had heard about this TTC management report before the news was publicly broadcast. Nor was the union informed. We were finally told by a supervisor that an emailed alert had been sent to supervisory staff, presumably to pass it on to the frontline workers.”
The alert that was issued by the TTC did not make any reference to a specific threat but did remind workers to be vigilant.
Kinnear said that the fact that many TTC operators did not receive the warning is proof that there are “missing links in the TTC communications network” that need to be addressed.
“When you’re dealing with something as deadly serious as a potential terrorist attack you should not keep the workers’ representative out of the loop,” he said. “We gladly would have helped. And still will.”
The TTC wasn’t the only Toronto organization to be alerted to a potential terror threat on Wednesday.
Both Metrolinx and the Greater Toronto Airports Authority also received similar warnings.
The warnings came hours before known Islamic State sympathizer Aaron Driver was killed after being confronted by police while travelling in the back seat of a taxi.
RCMP have said that when officers pulled over the cab and confronted Driver, an improvised explosive device detonated, injuring the cabbie.
Driver was then killed in the ensuing interaction with police, either through gunfire or through injuries sustained in the initial explosion.
It is not known what Driver’s intended target was.
