The Canadian province of Alberta says it will temporarily pause its controversial book ban “to ensure that our classic literary works remain in school libraries” after novels, including several warning of dystopian government overreach, were pulled from shelves.
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.
“It’ll be paused for a couple of hours while the ministerial order is rewritten,” she told reporters on Tuesday afternoon. “The 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’s being made clear.”
The rules, set to go into effect on 1 October, reflect a lobbying success by socially conservative “parents’ rights” groups in the province and mirrors a trend in the United States.
But the ambiguity over what constitutes “explicit sexual content” has also provoked protest from school boards.
Highlighting what it felt were inconsistencies in the new rules, Edmonton’s 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.
Among those books were dystopian classics such as The Handmaid’s 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.
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.
“I’m due to be in Calgary, Alberta, in November. That should be fun,” she wrote on Substack. “Especially since Albertans are per capita the top readers in Canada, and last time I looked they were pretty independent-minded. I expect they will have a few things to say.
On Tuesday, Alberta’s education and childcare minister, Demetrios Nicolaides, told board officials to pause any restrictions on books “until further notice” and said more information would be sent to schools shortly.
Premier Smith, who previously said the move was never about “banning books”, has complained that school boards were using “vicious compliance” to protest the rule and pulling books that should remain on shelves.
“I’m going to be more explicit than usual so there is no misunderstanding this policy,” Smith wrote on X on Tuesday. “1. 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’s not play any more games in implementing this policy for our kids.”
