{"id":270,"date":"2025-09-04T04:03:59","date_gmt":"2025-09-04T04:03:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/270\/"},"modified":"2025-09-04T04:03:59","modified_gmt":"2025-09-04T04:03:59","slug":"canada-alberta-pauses-book-ban-after-schools-remove-handmaids-tale-1984-and-other-classics-canada","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/270\/","title":{"rendered":"Canada: Alberta pauses book ban after schools remove Handmaid\u2019s Tale, 1984 and other classics | Canada"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Canadian province of Alberta says it will temporarily pause its controversial book ban<\/a> \u201cto ensure that our classic literary works remain in school libraries\u201d after novels, including several warning of dystopian government overreach, were pulled from shelves.<\/p>\n

Premier Danielle Smith said the temporary pause would allow officials time to rework new rules that focus on how gender identity, sexual orientation or human sexuality are discussed in classrooms.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019ll be paused for a couple of hours while the ministerial order is rewritten,\u201d she told reporters on Tuesday afternoon. \u201cThe direction will be to take books with pornographic images out of the libraries and to leave the classics alone. I think that there was some misunderstanding of the order, so it\u2019s being made clear.\u201d<\/p>\n

The rules<\/a>, set to go into effect on 1 October, reflect a lobbying success by socially conservative \u201cparents\u2019 rights\u201d groups in the province and mirrors a trend in the United States.<\/p>\n

But the ambiguity over what constitutes \u201cexplicit sexual content\u201d has also provoked protest from school boards.<\/p>\n

Highlighting what it felt were inconsistencies in the new rules, Edmonton\u2019s school board drew up a list of more than 200 books it said must be removed from library shelves in order to comply with the ministerial order.<\/p>\n

Among those books were dystopian classics such as The Handmaid\u2019s Tale by Margaret Atwood, 1984 by George Orwell and Brave New World by Aldous Huxley. The Color Purple by Alice Walker and I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou were also targeted, as were Jaws by Peter Benchley and It by Stephen King.<\/p>\n

Alberta\u2019s premier, Danielle Smith, and the province\u2019s minister of education, Demetrios Nicolaides, in Calgary, on 16 May 2025. Photograph: Jeff McIntosh\/The Canadian Press via Alamy<\/p>\n

Atwood, whose book was turned into a critically acclaimed television series, mocked the ban on social media, posting a short story that critiqued the heavy-handed approach by the province.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m due to be in Calgary, Alberta, in November. That should be fun,\u201d she wrote on Substack. \u201cEspecially since Albertans are per capita the top readers in Canada<\/a>, and last time I looked they were pretty independent-minded. I expect they will have a few things to say.<\/p>\n

On Tuesday, Alberta\u2019s education and childcare minister, Demetrios Nicolaides, told board officials to pause any restrictions on books \u201cuntil further notice\u201d and said more information would be sent to schools shortly.<\/p>\n

Premier Smith, who previously said the move was never about \u201cbanning books\u201d, has complained that school boards were using \u201cvicious compliance\u201d to protest the rule and pulling books that should remain on shelves.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m going to be more explicit than usual so there is no misunderstanding this policy,\u201d Smith wrote on X on Tuesday. \u201c1. Get graphic pornographic images out of school libraries. 2. Leave the classics on the shelves. 3. We all know the difference between the items in 1 and 2. Let\u2019s not play any more games in implementing this policy for our kids.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Canadian province of Alberta says it will temporarily pause its controversial book ban \u201cto ensure that our…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":271,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[489,156,111,139,69],"class_list":{"0":"post-270","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-books","8":"tag-books","9":"tag-entertainment","10":"tag-new-zealand","11":"tag-newzealand","12":"tag-nz"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/270","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=270"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/270\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/271"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=270"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=270"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=270"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}