Police were called to MPP Sam Oosterhoff's riding office Tuesday after a group of older adults clutching books showed up to stage a "read in" over provincial library cuts.

The group of about 15 retirees and seniors, some of whom are members of a classic book club in Wainfleet, had planned to read their books in the Niagara West Tory MPP's Beamsville office in silent protest.

"I don't think we looked threatening," said Janet Hodgkins, a book club member and a retired librarian who worked at Welland Public Library for 28 years.

Each member of the group carried a book, some with homemade brown paper covers displaying quotes about the importance of libraries. They walked into Oosterhoff's King Street office in a plaza just after 2 p.m. and were told by a staff member that they couldn't hold a sit-in because the building is owned by someone else.

The staff member said she would call police if the group didn't leave and when a man said they just wanted to read, she did. Two members of the group then left, but others asked if they could make an appointment to meet with Oosterhoff.

They were told Oosterhoff is only in the riding on Fridays and is booking two months in advance. He will only meet with constituents who live in his riding because he is so busy with appointments.

Some members of the group then asked if they could leave letters they had brought with them for Oosterhoff about why they are opposing library cuts. Nine people left letters along with the homemade book covers.

They then exited the office.

The whole interaction took about eight minutes.

While outside the office talking to The St. Catharines Standard, two Niagara Regional Police officers arrived who had been called to the office and a third followed. No arrests were made.

Oosterhoff, who was not in his office Tuesday, tweeted out a response.

"We deal with sensitive subject matter and constituents deserve privacy when in my office," he said. "After the individuals would not leave my office following their protest, in order to protect individuals coming in for private meetings the staff needed assistance to clear the office."

The group had cleared the office prior to police officers arriving.

In an emailed statement to The Standard, Oosterhoff said the actions were taken to ensure the privacy of constituents receiving service were protected.

"I take many meetings with constituents, and I look forward to meeting with any of these particular constituents who wish to express their concerns to me. My suggestion would be to contact the constituency office prior to arriving to make sure I am in the office and not in Toronto or around the riding, to help set up a face to face meeting."

The group of book lovers were protesting the provincial government's 50 per cent cut in funding to Southern Ontario Library Services, from $3.1 million to $1.5 million. Because of the cut, SOLS on April 26 terminated its delivery service which transported books between 153 libraries in Ontario. The service allowed readers to get copies of titles their local libraries didn't have.

The inter-library loan delivery program was used by all 12 of Niagara's municipal library systems to share and borrow more than 80,000 books last year.

Hodgkins invited other library lovers to join her at Oosterhoff's office for a "read in" because the cuts are affecting her classic book club at Wainfleet Public Library. She isn't sure the club will survive past the month.

The club had selected George Orwell's "1984" for its May read but the nine copies which were supposed to come from various libraries across Ontario haven't materialized due to the cuts. Wainfleet doesn't have nine of the same title and last month Hodgkins' copy of "Maltese Falcon" came from Owen Sound.

"For all I know it might be the end of our club," Hodgkins said. "Because how can we have a book club without books?"

Hodgkins said the same situation is happening in public libraries across the province because most have at least one book club and they all rely on inter-library loans to get sufficient copies.

She said similar cuts by the government in Saskatchewan a couple of years ago were reversed because of the public outcry.

"I was inspired by that. I thought, what can I do?" she said. "I don't know if we can get the provincial government to change its mind but we can at least raise awareness of the problem and we can maybe inspire others to speak out."

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Some members of the "read in" group — which came from Port Colborne, Crystal Beach, Fonthill, St. Catharines, Wainfleet, Ridgeway and Fenwick — said they lived through the '60s but had never protested anything before.

"It's my chance to do something like this. I feel what's happening with what the PCs are doing now is really unfortunate," said Mickey Mayne of Port Colborne, who is a member of the classic book club with Hodgkins.

"A 50 per cent cut in any kind of organization is a death knell."

Mayne said the cuts aren't likely to save taxpayers any money because the cost of services will be downloaded to municipalities.

"A library cut is a cut to jobs and it's a cut to women's jobs."

Retired teacher Kathryn Gorman of Fonthill said she's been an avid reader from age six to 72 and said the inter-library loan service was important for research and getting large print books.

"I feel like a friend of mine has been kicked in the gut."

The province's minister of tourism, culture and sport, Michael Tibollo, said in a previous letter to library managements that the government is maintaining base funding for libraries at $25 million for 2019-20.

He wrote the SOLS inter-library service program is "very inefficient" and is administered by 12 vans criss-crossing the province at a cost of $1.3 million a year. He said the goal of the service can be preserved by using mail, at less than 25 per cent of the existing cost.

He added that would be a common-sense step to modernizing service delivery while reducing program cost and he hoped the library boards would adopt a mail-and-courier approach.

SOLS has said their courier service only runs in southern Ontario in more densely populated geographic areas where it has been cost effective to do so.

Karena.Walter@niagaradailies.com

905-225-1628 | @karena_standard

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