Did you know that every year in Canada, books are being challenged (or even banned) at the border and in schools and libraries across the country? Freedom to read week is an annual event that brings awareness to censorship in Canada and advocates for freedom of expression and access to information. From freedomtoread.ca:
“Despite having strong traditions of free expression and free inquiry, Canada also has a long-standing tradition of censorship. Historically, books and magazines have often been quietly removed from libraries and classrooms. Freedom to Read Week was founded in 1984 to challenge the covert nature of censorship, creating a broader awareness of these ongoing challenges to Canadian writing, and to allow Canadians to actively defend their right to publish, read and write freely and to widen their understanding of the negative effects of censorship, not just on readers but on writers and publishers as well."
Over the years, Freedom to Read Week has become a regular feature of the annual programming of schools, libraries and literary groups across Canada. From student video contests to large public readings of challenged materials, participants have found creative and inspiring ways to show how important freedom of expression is to them.”
In the spirit of freedom to read week, we have put together a display of works that have been challenged in Canada. Check them out and get a banned book bookmark, and take a look at the book’s entry on the challenged works list to see why the work has been challenged.
Not living in Prince George? Take a look at some of the challenged works that are available as ebooks at the Geoffrey R. Weller Library:
Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1885) by
Antigone by
Bad Medicine -- Revised and Updated by
Tendencies by
Publication Date: 1993-10-28
The Giver by
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