Commentary
Late February, across Canada, many librarians and teachers celebrate “Freedom to Read Week,” which, according to the event’s organizers, “encourages Canadians to think about and reaffirm their commitment to intellectual freedom.”
And that’s a good thing, because that freedom is constantly under attack in Canada.
For example, in 2023 the Peel District School Board, the second-largest school board in Canada, ordered all its school libraries to remove books published before 2008 because their content may violate diversity, equity, and inclusion policies. As one student told the CBC, the purge produced “rows and rows of empty shelves with absolutely no books.” Even the children’s classic “Curious George” bit the dust, and there were claims that Anne Frank’s famous diary went to a landfill….