SFU ends contract with 'risk management firm' hired to monitor striking workers

Picketers are seen on Simon Fraser University's Burnaby, B.C., campus in a social media image posted by the Teaching Support Staff Union.

Simon Fraser University has ended a contract with a "risk management firm" hired to conduct surveillance on striking workers – a move that was met with outcry from the campus community.

The Teaching Support Staff Union, which represents nearly 1,600 teaching staff at SFU, initiated preliminary job action back in July, then escalated to rolling picket lines at the university's Vancouver, Burnaby and Surrey campuses late last month.

In a statement, the union said the "indefinite work stoppage" that began Sept. 28 followed 41 sessions of bargaining and 19 months without a collective agreement.

Shortly after they began picketing, union member Kelvin Gawley said they began noticing "odd characters" following them from campus to campus and recording workers on cellphones.

"To realize you're being monitored, it's concerning – it makes people anxious," Gawley said. "Several of us went to speak to them, but they refused to identify themselves."

Some of those interactions were captured on video and posted onto the union’s social media account. In one video, a union member asks a man who had apparently been surveilling their picket line what he was looking at – to which he responds by gesturing at the sky and saying, "weather."

Simon Fraser University confirmed this week that it contracted Lions Gate Risk Management Group – the same firm hired to monitor Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou during her extradition case – to keep an eye on the striking teachers.

The firm was brought on due to "complaints from faculty, staff, students, contractors and TSSU about behaviour at picket lines," according to a statement posted on the university's website.

"This behaviour included intimidation and entry ways being illegally blocked. SFU has also heard complaints from TSSU members about behaviours from SFU community members," it said.

Gawley called the suggestion that private investigators were required to maintain peace on their picket line "outrageous."

"It's just incredibly insulting to be targeted this way, to be treated like we're dangerous thugs when we're just asking for a livable wage," he said.

"Our picket lines are places of joy. They're peaceful – we drum, we sing, we speak to each other."

According to the university, Lions Gate Risk Management Group was not hired to provide security services, only to document behaviour on picket lines that could constitute harassment, bullying, assault or other illegal activity.

On Thursday, SFU provided an update that it has ended its contract with the firm "in response to concerns from our community," and that the university would be reassessing how it "(supports) safety on our picket lines going forward."

Word that the university hired the private investigators had become the "talk of the community," said Gawley, who thanked students and faculty for expressing their concerns about SFU's decision.

"The way the community has stood up with us has just been incredible," he said. "(SFU) can send these diet Pinkertons our way as much as they want, but we're only going to get stronger."

The two sides involved in the ongoing labour dispute have also agreed to work with an independent mediator as they work towards a new collective agreement. SFU said it has proposed those discussions begin as early as Friday.