Demetrios Nicolaides, Alberta's Minister of Education and Childcare, will require all school boards to create or update policies to restrict books the province deems sexually explicit.Jeff McIntosh/The Canadian Press
Alberta has issued a ministerial order to restrict books from school libraries that the province believes are sexually explicit, instructing authorities to remove the material by October and prohibit students from accessing it.
Demetrios Nicolaides, Alberta’s Education and Childcare Minister, said Premier Danielle Smith’s government will require all school boards to create or update policies to meet the province’s new safeguards. Until now, he stressed, schools had “zero standards” to select appropriate content for libraries.
All books with explicit sexual content will be removed. But libraries will also no longer be permitted to provide students in Grade 9 or below with material that contains non-explicit sexual content, such as the depiction of a sexual act that is indirect or unclear. Non-sexual content – referencing menstruation, puberty or romantic relationships, including hand-holding and kissing – will be allowed.
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Students in Grade 10 and above may only access the library material with non-explicit sexual content if it is deemed to be developmentally appropriate for them. The province, when asked to clarify, would not confirm how that would be determined, stating boards will be given clearer instructions in the coming months.
“This is never and was never about banning books or specific authors,” Mr. Nicolaides told reporters in Calgary on Thursday.
“We believe that students should be curious, inquisitive and exploratory about their world without encountering sexually explicit content.”
The new policies will apply to public, separate, francophone, charter and independent schools. The changes, however, are not expected to affect non-school libraries, including 55 municipal libraries located within education centres.
The ministerial order will also not apply to material selected for use by teachers as learning and teaching resources. Additionally, religious texts or scriptures, such as the Bible, will not be affected.
The age-appropriateness of books in school libraries is an increasingly politicized issue that has led to considerable legal challenges. Some argue that libraries should only offer books for specific ages, while others contend that students should have the freedom to choose what they read.
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Over the past few years, the scale of the issue has risen considerably, especially in the United States. Widespread activism and organized efforts have attempted to ban books particularly about subjects related to gender identity, sexual orientation or race.
In late May, Mr. Nicolaides said Alberta had been alerted by a group of parents who found sexually explicit content in schools, prompting the review of standards for what is available to students. He said the province would seek public feedback through online surveys, to which nearly 80,000 people have now responded.
But since the minister first spoke about the issue, two lobby groups – Action4Canada, a Christian organization, and Parents for Choice in Education, which has routinely challenged LGBTQ equity in schools – have taken credit for the province’s actions.
Mr. Nicolaides acknowledged that Alberta’s education ministry met with Action4Canada last fall, but he declined to say what effect those meetings have had.
“They had brought some materials to our attention, so that helped to get a better understanding of the nature of materials that was available in schools,” he said.
Using detailed language, he clarified that explicit sexual content is defined by the province as masturbation, penetration, ejaculation and any other acts that involve genitalia or “artificial sexual organs.”
Alberta will require schools to regularly review library collections and publish lists of available material. There is no additional government funding for schools to support the new policies, Mr. Nicolaides said Thursday.
Edmonton’s public school board said the October deadline would put excessive pressure on teachers.
“The board of trustees is calling for this deadline to be delayed or, ideally, to remove the requirement for teachers to catalogue individual classroom collections,” board chair Julie Kusiek said in a statement.
“September is an incredibly busy month where teachers are focused on getting to know students and their learning needs. Compiling a catalogue of potentially hundreds of books during this crucial time puts significant and unnecessary pressure on staff.”
Mr. Nicolaides said his government does not have a definitive list of books that Alberta is requiring schools to remove. As examples, he pointed to four books that he had first mentioned in May as being sexually explicit, each of which are graphic novels depicting coming-of-age and LGBTQ subjects: Gender Queer by Maia Kobabe; Fun Home by Alison Bechdel; Blankets by Craig Thompson; and Flamer by Mike Curato.
The minister added that he has not personally read those titles, the authors of which have countered that their work is appropriate for school-aged children and has been taken out of context.
“I am struggling to find the time to read a quarter of any book, let alone four books,” he said.
Joseph Jeffery, chair of the non-profit Canadian School Libraries, said Alberta’s response suggests that the province is purposefully casting a wider net for further restrictions on books in the future.
“It’s an incredibly slippery slope that we don’t have full clarity on the exact books that Alberta wants to ban – and let me be blunt, this is a ban," Mr. Jeffery, who is also a teacher-librarian in British Columbia, said in an interview.
“I’m incredibly worried about LGBTQ and queer kids. But I’m also worried that this province has cut so much staff at libraries, and they will now all be subjected to this.”
Jason Schilling, president of the Alberta Teachers’ Association, said the order will also discourage teachers from seeking out books that engage students.
“This ministerial order accomplishes little other than adding to teacher workload, politicizing a non-issue and targeting vulnerable students,” he said.
Wendy Burch Jones, president of the Ontario School Library Association, agreed.
“Rather than trusting or consulting qualified librarians on this, Alberta is implementing policies that will give authorities the power to erase the history and lived experiences of people under the guise of apparently protecting children,” she said.
Editor’s note: Reporting on a statement by the Minister, a previous version of this article incorrectly noted the type of material that libraries would no longer be able to provide students in Grade 9 and younger. This version has been updated to correctly state that while libraries will not be able to provide students in Grade 9 or below with material that contains non-explicit sexual content, such as the depiction of a sexual act that is indirect or unclear, non-sexual content – referencing menstruation, puberty or romantic relationships, including handholding and kissing – will be allowed.