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Thursday’s announcement also serves as a surprisingly necessary reminder that “B.C. Ferries is committed to prevention of violence in its workplace.”

The ban is one of seven year-long bans the company has issued in just the past two weeks.

B.C. Ferries described two of the other instances of aggressive behaviour in its release.

On Oct. 17, a passenger was banned from the service after threatening to shoot an employee at the Horseshoe Bay Terminal.

“He didn’t have a firearm at the time,” said Mark Collins, B.C. Ferries’ president & CEO, but threatened nevertheless to go away and get a firearm and come back. “That is completely unacceptable. That’s a threat and that goes straight to the police.”

On Oct. 22, another employee was assaulted by passenger on the Coastal Celebration.

Collins said the recent uptick in aggressive behaviour appeared less a troubling trend than a sign of the high-stress holiday season.

“Thanksgiving is the busiest weekend of the year,” he explained. “People get frustrated when they can’t get on the sailing of their choice.”

While the vast majority of people are respectful and understanding, Collins qualified, incidents like these happen, especially at peak times. When they do, the company will not hesitate to exercise their authority to ban passengers.

“In light of this particularly brazen one, or this brazen three that we outline in the release, we said it was time maybe to tell people that such behaviour gets you banned from the ferry for a year,” he said.

B.C. Ferries, which by law can refuse passage to someone, said it has security on board its vessels and at terminals, and will contact the authorities if needed.

with files from Cheryl Chan

hmooney@postmedia.com

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