A Bus Riders Union organizer has blamed the TransLink board’s lack of accountability and closed-door meetings for increased violence in Metro Vancouver’s transit system.

“I think it is a concern that bus riders do not have a means of controlling their own transit system,” Beth Grayer, who’s been a BRU organizer since 2001, told the Georgia Straight at a press conference today (August 6). “We don’t have a say any more. There is no venue for bus riders who are either victims of violence or afraid of violence to go to their TransLink board and demand some accountability. So I do think that what we are seeing is that, if violence is increasing, the TransLink board and lack of accountability is to blame.”

Today, at the Masjid ul-Haqq Mosque in Vancouver’s Kensington-Cedar Cottage neighbourhood, Grayer sat alongside Imam Mohammad Shujaath Ali and fellow BRU member Qasim Baig.

Baig, 59, told reporters he was riding the #25 bus on Kingsway on July 29 when he was attacked by a white man who repeatedly shouted “bin Laden” before punching him in the head. The bus driver immediately stopped the bus and called police. The perpetrator had fled by the time officers arrived.

Ali offered Baig his support and denounced the attacks on behalf of the B.C. Muslim Association.

“Canada is an open society, where all law-abiding citizens and residents are free to follow their religion and the culture of their choice,” Ali said. “Islam is a very understanding religion. It is the religion of tolerance, respect, and freedom of choice. The B.C. Muslim Association encourages all members of Canadian society to stand up against any kind of injustice and prejudice done to anyone, irrespective of their gender, race, colour or religious affiliation.”

Grayer, who used transit to get the press conference, said a breakdown in communication means that TransLink is not hearing about racial slurs and attacks on transit in a timely manner. This is party because TransLink board meetings are now closed to the public, she said.

“Right now, TransLink has a private board, which does not allow for public input,” Grayer said. “And we would like to see that change with a transit board that’s accountable to bus riders.”

Until January 2008, TransLink board meetings were open to the public. However, following a TransLink Governance Review initiated in 2006 by former B.C. transportation minister Kevin Falcon, new board chair Dale Parker ruled they would happen behind closed doors from that point on.

At UBC Robson Square on June 27, 2007, then-TransLink chair and Richmond mayor Malcolm Brodie took the board into a closed session after a protest by the BRU over a planned fare increase disrupted a meeting.

“TransLink doesn’t like to hear what it is doing wrong,” Grayer told the Straight at that time. “What we’ve seen in the last eight years is that TransLink is shifting their priorities toward raising fares, public-private partnerships—which are privatizing the public transit system—and basically profit-making and development, rather than the needs of bus riders.”

Grayer noted that TransLink is now claiming to be in a funding crisis and could cut bus service by 40 percent.

“What is the impact of those cuts going to be on bus riders like myself, and bus riders like Qasim who rely on the bus to get to our faith communities and to get to work?” she said. “It’s going to increase the lack of safety that’s for sure.”

In response to the BRU’s call for a “community consultation” following the attack, TransLink spokesperson Ken Hardie told the Straight by phone that the transit authority is open to the idea.

“That is something we would look at if the community, in this case the Muslim community, felt the issue needed to be dealt with,” Hardie said today. “But the call would have to come from the community itself, not from the BRU. Remember, when the BRU plans a press conference, these guys don’t invite TransLink.”

Hardie added that public delegations can address the TransLink board of directors for one hour prior to each meeting.