‘Frequent flyers’ behind surge in violence on public transit

This story is a collaboration between CBC Visual Investigations and the Investigative Journalism Foundation (IJF).

As police try to address a dramatic spike in violence on transit systems across the country, they’re finding a relatively small number of people are committing a disproportionate number of violent crimes.

In particular, the Edmonton Police Service (EPS) says 22 per cent of offenders are responsible for nearly half of the crime on transit.

“We’ve been pushing this boulder up a hill as a sector for the last few years,” said public transportation consultant David Cooper, who has observed similar problems with repeat offenders on transit systems across Canada. 

“A lot of times it’s the same people really impacting detrimentally the same cohort of people in a transit space,” he said. “What was very eye-opening to me, going out with police in several cities and going out with front-line staff, is that the police know who they are.”

Exclusive Statistics Canada data obtained by CBC’s visual investigations team and the Investigative Journalism Foundation (IJF) shows that Edmonton’s transit-related violent crime rate more than doubled between 2015 and 2024. The annual number of physical assaults on transit spiked by a whopping 260 per cent in the same time period.

Edmonton police are currently playing catch-up to address the issue, according to acting Sgt. Scott Nolt of the EPS’s crime suppression branch.

“From my personal perspective, I think the transit system was neglected from a policing sense for a period of time, until we got back … into the space two years ago,” he said. “The transit peace officers do a great job, but they’re severely limited by authority and policies.”

Exclusive: surveillance video of subway attack

The man who attacked Ben Mazor on an Edmonton LRT train on Nov. 21, 2023, was a repeat offender with a criminal history going back decades, according to court records. 

Exclusive video obtained through a freedom of information request shows Mazor boarding the train at Stadium Station, where a man was blocking passengers from reaching the seats. In the video, Mazor pushes past and argues with the man, who follows Mazor as he sits down.

“It was after I sat down that he started becoming violent and attacking me,” Mazor told CBC.

He was punched and knocked to the ground in the attack. The video shows Mazor scrambling to his feet and then repeatedly pushing the train’s alarm button for help.

“You don’t know how far south it can go when someone is willing to be that violent,” he said.

The attack left Mazor with a broken nose, a concussion and smashed eyeglasses. The man who punched him was arrested six months later, convicted of assault and sentenced to four months in jail.

Last month, he pleaded guilty to another assault charge.

Police arrest 3 people in 20 minutes

The last decade has seen a dramatic spike in reports of violent crimes on transit systems in several Canadian metro regions, out of proportion with overall crime trends, the Statistics Canada data shows.

The cumulative number of assaults reported on transit in eight of Canada’s 10 largest census metropolitan areas doubled between 2016 and 2024. Over the same time period, there was a 53 per cent increase in assaults across all types of locations in those regions.

• This is part of a series of stories about violence on public transit. Do you have an experience to share? Send an email to ask@cbc.ca.

Edmonton’s increase in transit-related violence was one of the biggest in the data set, although there are signs the problem is easing. Violent crime rates on transit in Edmonton and several other cities have gradually started to come down after hitting a peak in 2023, while still remaining well above pre-pandemic levels.

A second set of data, obtained through a freedom of information request to the EPS, adds more detail to the picture. The Coliseum LRT station was by far the biggest hot spot for violent crime on Edmonton’s transit system, with 289 incidents reported to police between 2018 and 2024 — at least 42 per cent more than any other station or transit centre.

In the same time period, about 44 per cent of violent crimes reported on Edmonton transit led to charges, the numbers show.

To get a sense of the problem, CBC’s Eric Szeto accompanied Edmonton police as they patrolled transit in December. Officers were on the lookout for the repeat offenders Nolt described as “frequent flyers” in the criminal justice system.

During the first 20 minutes of the transit patrol with police, three people were arrested. When officers ran their names at the scene, they discovered two were already banned from the transit system because of previous offences.

About a thousand people are currently banned from transit property in Edmonton, according to  EPS. Nolt estimates that up to 90 per cent of them are banned because of violent crimes committed on transit, including robberies, assaults, sex crimes and weapons offences.

“I don’t think it’s solely a policing solution,” Nolt said. He argued for a “multi-faceted” solution that would include courts imposing stricter conditions on repeat offenders.

Is jail the solution?

Violence on Edmonton transit is a problem all levels of government say they’re trying to address.

Mayor Andrew Knack said his first motion after being elected last year was to fund an increased number of winter warming spaces. The number of people experiencing homelessness in Edmonton in 2024 was the highest on record, according to Homeward Trust, and nearly a quarter were unsheltered.

“I don’t want people who are struggling to feel like they have to use … transit centres as their shelter spaces,” Knack said.

Alberta Public Safety Minister Mike Ellis said the province has tried to address the problem by providing funding for 50 additional police officers in Edmonton.

“[There’s] still a lot of work to do, but they have seen numbers starting to go down. I can tell you just anecdotally, speaking to people who are riding the transit systems, that they’re feeling safer now than they certainly did a number of years ago,” he said.

But Ellis argues real change will require bail reform from the federal government.

In October, the Liberals introduced Bill C-14, legislation that would make it harder to get bail, especially for repeat and violent offenders, and introduce stricter sentencing for violent crimes. 

Federal Justice Minister Sean Fraser described the proposed reforms as “sweeping” in an email statement to CBC.

Mazor doesn’t buy the idea that more time behind bars is the solution when it comes to the man who attacked him.

“Throwing these people in jail isn’t necessarily a help. It’s going to be more about getting critical help,” Mazor said. “He definitely needs a rehab, whether it be a social or therapy rehab, or something for drug addiction.”

Special thanks to Toronto Metropolitan University research assistant Simeon Ranxha for his help with data analysis.