The Montreal Transit Corporation, responding to the beating of a woman earlier this week in the metro system and controversy over who should have helped her, wants subway security guards to intervene if they see someone in danger.

Guards in the public transit system have a duty to step in and, without risking their safety, help in whatever way they can.

"I don't see why it's so complicated," said Claude Trudel, executive committee member responsible for public transit at the City of Montreal. "They have to call the police, and if their security is not at risk, they have to contain the incident."

Trudel was responding to an incident at the Berri-UQAM metro on Monday afternoon, the same day Montreal police announced they were taking over patrolling the public system.

According to an eyewitness, public transit security guards stood by and watched a woman get beaten.

The union representing guards said the guards had no choice but to act that way because police had ordered them to stop intervening in violent acts.

On Wednesday, Quebec Public Security Minister Jacques Dupuis ordered Montreal police to sort out subway security patrol and determine who is in charge of supervising the system.

The incident surfaced after eyewitness Alain Lamirande, a Montreal resident, told CBC's French-language service he witnessed a man beating up a woman who appeared to be the man's girlfriend on a platform at the Berri-UQAM station, in downtown Montreal.