{"id":116435,"date":"2025-09-03T09:59:06","date_gmt":"2025-09-03T09:59:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/116435\/"},"modified":"2025-09-03T09:59:06","modified_gmt":"2025-09-03T09:59:06","slug":"alberta-pauses-ban-on-school-library-books-with-sexually-explicit-content","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/116435\/","title":{"rendered":"Alberta pauses ban on school library books with sexually explicit content"},"content":{"rendered":"

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

Alberta Premier Danielle Smith has acknowledged the Edmonton school division was too heavy handed in crafting its list of banned books.Jeff McIntosh\/The Canadian Press<\/p>\n

The Alberta government is pausing its controversial order for the removal of books<\/a> deemed sexually explicit from school libraries, a retreat that Premier Danielle Smith<\/a> vowed would be short-lived as the province continues to push policies around sexuality and gender into the classroom.<\/p>\n

As of this month, new amendments to the Education Act dictate that ministerial approval is required before learning resources related to gender identity, sexual orientation or human sexuality are presented in schools. <\/p>\n

While teachers in Alberta<\/a> started a new school year this week, the difficulty of interpreting and following the new measures became a crucial concern.<\/p>\n

The Edmonton Public School Board verified last Friday a list of more than 200 books it would need to remove under the new measures \u2013 including classics such as The Handmaid\u2019s Tale by Margaret Atwood, The Color Purple by Alice Walker and I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou. <\/p>\n

Ms. Atwood reacted with several quips on social media and her blog over the past weekend, each of which were shared by thousands of people across the world. One of her remarks, viewed by more than a million people, included a satirical short story in which she compared the Premier to one of the characters in her highly regarded novel. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe Handmaid\u2019s Tale came true and Danielle Smith found herself with a nice new blue dress but no job,\u201d she wrote, referring to the wives of commanders in her book, which symbolizes restrictive and totalitarian societies.<\/p>\n

Margaret Atwood responds to Alberta book ban with satirical short story<\/a><\/p>\n

On Tuesday, in a brief e-mail to school boards and divisions, Alberta\u2019s Education and Childcare Minister Demetrios Nicolaides instructed officials to pause any restrictions on books \u201cuntil further notice,\u201d noting more information will be provided in the coming days.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt this time, I ask that school authorities also pause the development and distribution of lists of school library materials,\u201d Mr. Nicolaides wrote in the e-mail, obtained by The Globe and Mail.<\/p>\n

But at an unrelated event in Cypress County, Alta., Ms. Smith said the pause will only last for a short period until the ministerial order is rewritten. \u201cThe direction will be to take books with pornographic images out of the libraries and to leave the classics alone,\u201d she told reporters.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are hoping that the school boards understand what it is that we\u2019re trying to achieve.\u201d<\/p>\n

The book restrictions have come to a head under the shadow of a labour dispute in Alberta, as contract negotiations between the teachers\u2019 union and the province\u2019s bargaining team have reached an impasse. <\/p>\n

As of late Tuesday, the prospect of a teachers\u2019 strike or a lockout is continuing to loom just as school begins. Both the bargaining team and the union told The Globe that talks have broken off since last week after teachers rejected the proposal for a 12-per-cent salary increase over four years.<\/p>\n

Opinion: As a professor of literature, I have serious concerns about the debates over books happening in Alberta<\/a><\/p>\n

The age-appropriateness of books in school libraries has become an increasingly politicized issue over the last few years. It is part of a broader social movement, especially in the United States, where organized activism has attempted to ban subjects in school related to gender identity, sexual orientation or race.<\/p>\n

Since she became Premier in 2022, Ms. Smith\u2019s government has enacted several measures intended to be guardrails for youth in Alberta. A series of recent legislation from her United Conservative Party have limited gender-affirming treatment for transgender youth and affected their participation in sports.<\/p>\n

As part of the new amendments to the Education Act, parents must opt in before students under 16 are taught about gender identity, sexual orientation or human sexuality, while students\u2019 preferred pronouns and names cannot be used until guardians are notified and have consented.<\/p>\n

Earlier this summer, Mr. Nicolaides also imposed an Oct. 1 deadline for schools to remove any material considered explicit sexual content by the province. Stressing that schools maintained \u201czero standards\u201d to select appropriate content, the minister required boards to create or update their policies to meet the province\u2019s new standards.<\/p>\n

However, when asked to clarify, Mr. Nicolaides repeatedly declined to confirm a definitive list of books that would have to be banned in libraries. He only provided four examples of graphic novels, each of which depict coming-of-age or LGBTQ subjects, and whose authors have told The Globe that their work has been taken out of context. <\/p>\n

On Friday, after the Edmonton Public School Board verified the list of books it would have to remove under the new measures, Ms. Smith said it was performing \u201cvicious compliance\u201d with the list. If schools need the province to \u201chold their hand through the process to identify what kind of materials are appropriate,\u201d her government would do so, Ms. Smith said.<\/p>\n

On Tuesday, Ms. Smith said she hadn\u2019t read Ms. Atwood\u2019s 163-word story, but she encourages the author to \u201clook at the graphic images\u201d from the four examples that she and Mr. Nicolaides had previously provided. <\/p>\n

\u201cThere has been some willful and purposeful misrepresentation and misunderstanding of the policy,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n

Opinion: When we remove books from schools or libraries, we prune the landscapes of children\u2019s imaginations<\/a><\/p>\n

Naheed Nenshi, Leader of Alberta\u2019s New Democrats, described Tuesday\u2019s pause as a distraction from Ms. Smith\u2019s party being backfired: \u201cThey wrote a poorly thought-out ministerial order, that the Minister himself didn\u2019t understand when he introduced it. What did they think would happen?\u201d he said in a statement. <\/p>\n

Jason Schilling, president of the Alberta Teachers\u2019 Association, said the government\u2019s decision to pause the implementation of its book ban has turned into \u201can ill-timed game of Red Light, Green Light.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cToday, the Education Minister says teachers should no longer take steps to cull or curate their libraries \u2013 red light. Tomorrow, it is possible that teachers could be asked once again to add this task back onto their already overflowing plates \u2013 green light.\u201d<\/p>\n

Joanne Anderson, a spokesperson for the Calgary Board of Education, said its schools are now in a state of limbo. The board has been \u201cin the process of reviewing more than half a million individual book titles,\u201d she said in a statement. \u201cWe are instructing schools to pause these efforts while we await further direction.\u201d<\/p>\n

Edmonton Board chair Julie Kusiek said she is grateful for the pause after \u201cconcerns raised by parents, students, educators and the community\u201d about the Education Minister\u2019s order. Despite the Premier\u2019s remarks about their list of banned books, Ms. Kusiek said her board \u201cremains committed to keeping lines of communication open\u201d with her government.<\/p>\n

Separately, on Tuesday, Egale Canada and the Skipping Stone Scholarship Foundation launched a constitutional challenge against Alberta, arguing that the government\u2019s new rules on preferred pronouns and names in schools pose significant issues for the rights, safety and inclusion of LGBTQ students. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt forces gender diverse young people to make a cruel and unfair choice between being outed to their parents by the government and being misgendered and deadnamed,\u201d the legal filing noted.<\/p>\n

Ms. Smith did not directly address questions about the lawsuit. Garrett Koehler, spokesperson for Mr. Nicolaides, also declined to comment, stating it would be \u201cinappropriate\u201d as the matter is before the courts.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Open this photo in gallery: Alberta Premier Danielle Smith has acknowledged the Edmonton school division was too heavy…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":116436,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[353,49,48,75,1008,5756],"class_list":["post-116435","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-books","tag-books","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-entertainment","tag-pleasemod","tag-yesapplenews"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/116435","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=116435"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/116435\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/116436"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=116435"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=116435"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=116435"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}