By Anita Brooks Kirkland
No, books in Chilliwack school libraries aren’t child pornography, RCMP says. How’s that for a headline to take your breath away?
Chilliwack, British Columbia recently found itself at the centre of controversy about the books held in its school library collections. The Chilliwack School District had been bombarded with complaints that their libraries contained illegal pornography, to the point where the local detachment of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police was called in. “This is a serious allegation and one that caused many parents great concern in our community”, the RCMP stated in its news release about the investigation, where the serious crimes unit confirmed that the books in question were not pornographic (Little, S., February 22, 2023).
As teacher-librarians, we are always aware of the potential for challenges to library materials, but I doubt that any of you have lived in fear of the police investigating what you have selected for your students. If our school districts have done their job, they have established professional guidelines for the selection of materials, and associated reconsideration procedures for challenges to specific resources. We are also as prepared as we can be for situations where these procedures are not observed, and book challenges become more of a public spectacle. But speaking for myself, I have never experienced anywhere near the extreme of the Chilliwack situation. And this is in Canada! In my more optimistic moments, I comfort myself by noting that despite its drama, this is still an extremely rare situation in our country, which I believe is a model for defending diversity and freedom of expression. But pride in my country cannot blind me to the hard truth, that this sub-culture of intolerance undeniably exists in Canadian society. Are we suffering through a perfect post-pandemic storm of intolerance and conspiracy theories? Or is this part of the age-old reality of living next to the United States, and sharing the longest undefended border in the world? Likely a bit of both.
Sleeping with the Elephant
Let’s start with that undefended border. Canada reaps the benefits of living next to the United States, our closest ally and largest trading partner, but we also suffer the consequences. As former Prime Minister Pierre Elliot Trudeau put it in a meeting with then president Richard Nixon in 1969, “Living next to you is in some ways like sleeping with an elephant. No matter how friendly and even-tempered is the beast, if I can call it that, one is affected by every twitch and grunt.” Trudeau’s son and current Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has certainly lived his father’s epic metaphor, particularly during the Trump years, when relations between the two countries were extremely strained. (CBC Radio, June 15, 2018). And now in 2023 the sleeping giant of intolerance and censorship that has reached epidemic proportions in the United States is seeping across the border into Canada.
Over the past two years, there has been an explosion of book challenges in the United States. Citing “parental rights”, challengers have organized into groups, sharing tactics and resources. The largest of these, Moms for Liberty, has found common cause with the other groups in seeking control to limit what kinds of books are available in schools. While most groups cite parental rights or religious or conservative views to be their focus, some also make explicit calls for the exclusion of materials that touch on race or LGBTQ+ themes (PEN America, 2022).
The vast majority of the books targeted by these groups feature LGBTQ+ characters or characters of colour, and/or tell the story of racism in American history. Groups share lists of books to challenge, and they employ similar tactics, including flooding school districts with complaints and disrupting board meetings. In some extreme cases, groups have targeted individual educators and librarians, harassing them online, and accusing them of peddling pornography and “grooming” children.
There is an associated chill of self-censorship amongst publishers, booksellers, and librarians facing this new context. “In the face of those pressures, publishers have adopted a defensive crouch, taking pre-emptive measures to avoid controversy and criticism.” (Paul, 2022). That is not to say that there is no resistance. PEN America has led the charge with its report, Banned in the USA: The growing movement to censor books in schools. Although it is likely that the majority of Americans do not support the extremist views behind this insidious censorship movement, it has quickly become a vocal and influential part of the political and social polarization of the United States today.
Age Appropriateness as Code for Intolerance and Bigotry
Age-appropriateness is a familiar reason given for challenges to library resources. But claims of resources being inappropriate based on age almost always mask other concerns. Analysis of the themes of recently-banned books by PEN America (2022) reveal some harsh truths. Almost equally represented in the two most predominant categories are books with themes related to sexual orientation or gender identity and books where the main characters are people of colour.
American Library Association reveal some harsh truths.
(Image in the public domain.)
Of particular concern is the emergence of challenges based on Critical Race Theory. Critical Race Theory is an academic framework for studying systemic racism. Its meaning has been subverted by the radical right, who describe it as just a way to label white people as oppressors and racial minorities as the oppressed. Challenges to books that tell the story of the Black experience in America are often disguised as concerns about other issues like being sexually explicit for example, based on sections or portions that may be taken out of context.
Censorship has been institutionalized in several US jurisdictions, including Florida. The Parental Rights in Education act, which prohibits classroom instruction or discussion about sexual orientation and gender identity in Kindergarten through Grade 3, was signed into law in March 2022. Frequently referred to as the “Don’t Say Gay” law, it was updated in April 2023 by a unanimous vote in the state legislature to extend all restrictions to all grades, Kindergarten to Grade 12. This development is causing extreme alarm in America, despite the overwhelming support that presidential hopeful Governor Ron DeSantis has in his own state.
Under the Influence: Book Challenges in Canada
Canada has not been immune to populist censorship tactics. Several months ago educators across the country started receiving “notices of personal liability” which erroneously accused recipients of exposing minors to sexually explicit materials. The notices were, in fact, a form letter produced by Action4Canada, a group similar to censorship groups in the US. The Canadian Federation of Library Associations (CFLA-FCAB) issued a memo (2022) about how to deal with the inflammatory notice, stating that it has no legal value with regards to its claims of the recipient is breaking the law, and that it does not replace processes that the library already has in place to facilitate challenges to library materials.
A major target of these notices related to implementation of a curriculum resource about sexual orientation and gender identity (SOGI) in British Columbia. The BC Minister of Education along with trustee, educational leadership, parent and teachers’ organizations issued a response, unequivocally defending the resource.
“B.C.’s K-12 curriculum includes a focus on valuing diversity and respecting differences, as well as human rights and responses to discrimination. Students deserve to have the complete support of teachers, administrators, support staff, trustees, parents, guardians, caregivers and their community, as we work together to create learning environments where all students are free from discrimination so they can thrive and succeed in their school years and beyond.”
(BC Government News, 2022)
The British Columbia Teacher Librarians’ Association (BCTLA) followed up with its own letter of support. As association president Tammy Le put it, “And so we decided to write a letter saying that freedom of choice for reading for students, that’s very important for us. And it’s tied into the curriculum as well, and part of the curriculum is joy of reading. And if we want to be promoting joy of reading, we need to have diverse books for students to access.” (Hyslop, K. 2023). In contrast to the strong defence of the SOGI curriculum in BC, New Brunswick’s government has decided to “rethink” its policy on sexual orientation and gender identity in schools because of a backlash against its own similar educational resource (Poitras, 2023).
The Manitoba School Library Association (MSLA) has been similarly vocal about pressure to ban books in the province (MSLA 2023), with public libraries and school libraries being targeted by vocal demonstrations across the province (Abas, 2023). In May 2023 the Brandon School Division rejected a call to remove books dealing with sexuality and gender identity from libraries (MacLean, 2023). Trustees voted to reject a proposal to create a committee of trustees and parents to review books available in the division’s school libraries. The summary of correspondence received by the school board (May 2023) provides detailed insight into the many issues that complicate debate on the freedom to read.
In my own backyard in Ontario, the Waterloo Region District School Board, where I served as Consultant for K-12 Libraries prior to my retirement, has been under attack for “exposing students to pornography” in its library collections, as well as for its practice of collecting statistics in order to better serve the needs of its diverse student population. While not claiming to represent the group, a parent delegate at a board meeting used tactics direct from the Action4Canada website, and accused the board and its employees of child abuse. The board responded with an open letter refuting the claims. “Simply because a parent or caregiver disagrees with Ministry of Education and Ontario Human Rights Commission directions does not give them the right to make false claims of pandering or facilitating child abuse or pedophilia,” the letter reads. “This behaviour is egregious, although it is a tried and tested method to attack public education in an effort to reverse human rights and equity protections of marginalized groups.” (Williams, 2023).
A motion sympathetic to this parent’s concerns was subsequently brought before the board, which among other things, proposed to restrict access to the library’s eBook collection based on “age-appropriateness”. I appeared at the board meeting considering this motion as a delegate representing Canadian School Libraries, speaking specifically about the role of the library in developing reading literacy, addressing the meaning of “age-appropriateness” and how the term has been co-opted by those wishing to censor materials, and placing the motion within the context of the current plague of challenges to library materials taking place across North America. Although the motion was eventually defeated, a new one was immediately introduced, focusing solely on the eBook collection, proposing that “age-appropriate graduated filtering software” be applied to collection. And so the battle continues.
And of course there’s the Chilliwack situation, described earlier in this article. As it turns out, the founder of the group Action4Canada was behind that complaint. Calling in the RCMP to investigate library books is an extreme that we hope remains an isolated incident in Canada. Canada has its share of bigots and racists, and certainly our colonial history is rife with examples of associated injustices. There is still huge work to be done to confront these injustices and move forward in achieving equity in our diverse society.
Legal Precedence for Defending the Right to Read
Rich and diverse library collections are developed within the context of the rights and freedoms guaranteed to all Canadians in the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. The Charter protects the rights of everyone, including children. There is precedence in case law in Canada for protecting students’ freedom to read. In 2002 a Kindergarten teacher applied to the Surrey School District in British Columbia for permission to use three picture books depicting same-sex couples. Permission was refused, and so began a legal challenge that ended up at the Supreme Court of Canada. The court found that the school trustees had acted unreasonably when they banned the books. “Tolerance is always age-appropriate”, commented the chief justice.
Buoyed by this decision and strengthened by our common purpose of supporting our students, we all need to prepare ourselves with solid information in the event that our libraries are the next target of organized censorship movements.
Defending Freedom of Expression is Our Responsibility
The CSL Collection Diversity Toolkit provides a model for the principles of selection.
Part of being a teacher-librarian is defending our students’ freedom of expression, including their freedom to read. This is at the core of the ethics of school librarianship, as expressed in the International Federation of Library Association’s School Library Guidelines (2015). “Everyone who works in the school library, including volunteers, should endeavour to embody the core values of librarianship: stewardship, service, intellectual freedom, rationalism, literacy and learning, equity of access to recorded knowledge and information, privacy, and democracy. The core values of equity of access to recorded knowledge and information and intellectual freedom are embodied in Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and in the values of IFLA.”
What Rights Do Parents Actually Have?
Educators, parents and society all have the welfare of children top of mind. Of course parents have the right to guide their own child’s selection of reading materials. But they do not have the right to restrict access to resources for other people’s children. “Parental rights”, when used in the context of these challenges to library resources, has become code for handing over control of professional educational decisions to a group of parents with a particular agenda. An attack on the library collection is not only an attack on students’ right to freedom of expression, it is an attack on the professional competencies and responsibilities of the teacher-librarian.
Decoding “Age Appropriateness”
That a resource is not “age appropriate” is almost universally mentioned when school library resources are challenged. It is very important to understand what this actually means, and how its meaning has frequently been distorted. Library collections must be appropriate to meet the needs of all kinds of readers of all ages. The resource collection provides the foundation for student success in the library. In the library, students are encouraged to select reading materials for their own enjoyment. The collection must, therefore, support a broad range of readers, at all levels, from emergent to proficient, regardless of age or grade level. The entry point to reading in the library is interest, not level.
Selection is based on reason and principle, not personal opinion or bias. Selecting or deselecting materials based on personal beliefs is a serious breach of the ethics of librarianship. Canadian School Libraries provides a model for principles of selection. These principles support learning, and also ensure representation and diversity. Resources cannot be rejected because they represent diverse peoples and communities. All Canadians are guaranteed the right to representation and to freedom of expression, regardless of age. These representations are protected and enshrined in the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms and in provincial human rights codes. Trained library professionals make selections based on reason and principle rather than on personal opinion and bias. They also defend students’ right to resources that promote open inquiry, critical thinking, diversity in thought and expression, and respect for others.
That takes us then, to how the term age appropriateness is frequently co-opted by censors. Representation of diverse peoples or seeking understanding of potentially difficult topics is not restricted by the age of the reader. Award-winning Canadian and Cree author David Robertson explains this eloquently. “We don’t teach primary students calculus, but we lay the foundation for that learning by teaching them simple addition, he says. “That’s how I approached When We Were Alone, a children’s book about the residential school system. I didn’t have to address everything. I couldn’t, and shouldn’t, address everything for young readers. What I had to do was build a foundation. Simple addition.”
As school library professionals, we all share the common purpose of defending our students’ freedom to read. It is part of mission, and Canadian librarians are stepping up to the challenge (Logan, 2023). Please explore the many articles in Canadian School Libraries Journal on topics related to intellectual freedom. In May 2023 CSL issued a statement on book challenges and censorship in Canada’s school libraries. Please share this statement widely, and be prepared to speak up against censorship, and for diversity in our schools and all of Canadian society.
References
Abas, M. (2023). Southern Manitoba libraries face funding threats over failed book bans. The Free Press. Accessed at: https://www.winnipegfreepress.com/arts-and-life/entertainment/books/2023/05/01/southern-manitoba-libraries-face-funding-threats-over-failed-book-bans
ALA Office for Intellectual Freedom (n.d.). Banned and challenged books. America Library Association. Accessed at: https://www.ala.org/advocacy/bbooks
Block, Melissa (2022). Accusations of ‘grooming’ are the latest political attack – with homophobic origins. National Public Radio. Accessed at: https://www.npr.org/2022/05/11/1096623939/accusations-grooming-political-attack-homophobic-origins
BC Government News (2022). Minister’s, K-12 education partners’ statement on support for SOGI. Accessed at: https://news.gov.bc.ca/releases/2022ECC0075-001396
Brandon School District (2023). Board of Trustees meeting agenda May 19, 2023. Accessed at: https://media.bsd.ca/media/Default/frf/5/20%202023May23BrdPkg.pdf
Canadian Federation of Library Associations (2022). Memo to CFLA-FCAB members: Notices of personal liability. Accessed at: http://cfla-fcab.ca/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/CFLA-Notice-of-Liability-Memo-7-05-1.pdf
CBC Kids (2021). Interview with David A. Robertson: Talking to kids about residential schools.
CBC Radio The Sunday Edition (June 15, 2018). Sleeping with a very cranky elephant: The history of Canada-U.S. tensions. Accessed at: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/sunday/the-sunday-edition-june-17-2018-1.4692469/sleeping-with-a-very-cranky-elephant-the-history-of-canada-u-s-tensions-1.4699017
Canadian School Libraries. Collection diversity toolkit. Accessed at: https://www.canadianschoollibraries.ca/collection-diversity-toolkit/
Hyslop, K. (2023). What a BC librarian thinks about calls to ban books. The Tyee. Accessed at: https://thetyee.ca/News/2023/03/22/What-A-BC-Librarian-Thinks-About-Book-Bans/
International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (2015). IFLA School Library Guidelines 2nd revised edition. Accessed at: https://www.ifla.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/assets/school-libraries-resource-centers/publications/ifla-school-library-guidelines.pdf
Levithan, David (2021). Interview with author. In L. S. Marcus (Ed) You can’t say that! Writers for young people talk about censorship, free expression, and the stories they have to tell. Candle Wick Press.
Little, Simon (February 22, 2023). No, books in Chilliwack school libraries aren’t child pornography, RCMP says. Global News. Accessed at: https://globalnews.ca/news/9505240/chilliwack-school-books-not-child-pornography/
Logan, Nick (May 24, 2023). Libraries are being accused of offering child porn. Librarians explain why that’s not true. CBC News. Accessed at: https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/canada-libraries-book-challenges-1.6851688
MacLean, Cameron (May 24, 2023). Cheers as Brandon School Division rejects call to remove library books on sexuality, gender identity. CBC News. Accessed at: https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/manitoba/brandon-school-division-books-libraries-1.6852651
Manitoba School Library Association (2023). MSLA’s stance on book challenges in Manitoba. Accessed at: https://www.manitobaschoollibraries.ca/
Paul, Pamela (2022). There’s more than one way to ban a book. The New York Times. Accessed at: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/07/24/opinion/book-banning-censorship.html
PEN America (2022). Banned in the USA: The growing movement to censor books in schools. Accessed at: https://pen.org/report/banned-usa-growing-movement-to-censor-books-in-schools/
Poitra, J. (2023). N.B. reviews gender-identity policy in schools as supporters accuse minister of caving to anti-LGBTQ pressure. CBC News. Accessed at: https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/new-brunswick/nb-education-gender-policy-1.6836059
Supreme Court of Canada (2002). Supreme Court Judgments: Chamberlain v. Surrey School District No. 36. Accessed at: https://decisions.scc-csc.ca/scc-csc/scc-csc/en/item/2030/index.do?q=%22constitutional+law+of+canada%22+
Williams, Robert (2023). Waterloo Region’s public school board refutes parent claims in open letter. The Record. Accessed at: https://www.therecord.com/news/waterloo-region/2023/01/23/waterloo-regions-public-school-board-refutes-parent-claims-in-open-letter.html
Anita Brooks Kirkland is the Chair of Canadian School Libraries and co-editor of CSL Journal. She is a past president of the Ontario Library Association and the Ontario School Library Association. Professional interests focus on information literacy, the virtual library, action research, and the role of the library learning commons. Anita draws on her extensive experience as a teacher-librarian and as a teacher educator, both in her previous roles as the library consultant for the Waterloo Region DSB and as an instructor in teacher-librarianship for the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, University of Toronto.