The Writers’ Union of Canada (TWUC) joins with library and education colleagues across the country in questioning and challenging a recent announcement from the Government of Alberta concerning “age-appropriate” books in school libraries. The proposal of pending new rules for book selection, and the fielding of what appears to be a misleading public survey designed to justify such rules, attacks and undermines education and library professionals in the province of Alberta, while casting LGBTQ+-themed books as somehow dangerous to students.
TWUC supports the statement by Canadian School Libraries (CSL), which argues:
“Schools need to have a wide range of age and developmentally appropriate resources that cover the needs of the student population. School library collections, with a richness and diversity that allows students to see themselves and experience lives other than their own, are developed within the lens of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms and the rights and freedoms it affords to all Canadians, including children. There is no one size fits all model that can easily be applied to every school.”
The Government of Alberta’s announcement and public survey on this issue starts from the premise that there exists a serious problem of raw sexually-explicit content currently offered to students of all ages in Alberta schools. This combined with dire warnings of explicit imagery at the top of the survey can only prejudice results, and lead to reactionary policy that will restrict the freedom to read for Alberta’s students.
“As an author who has suffered challenges of my children’s books in Canadian schools, I find this announcement from Alberta chilling and threatening,” said Danny Ramadan, TWUC’s outgoing Chair and the 2024/25 Canadian Writer-in-Residence at the University of Calgary. “I can’t help noticing most of the examples used in Alberta’s announcement are books that feature LGBTQ+ life experience. This is little more than discriminatory culture war posturing.”
A joint release from the Trustees of Edmonton Public Schools and the Calgary Board of Education decries the undermining of the traditional partnership between school professionals and government resulting from this announcement, saying:
“Both our divisions follow established, rigorous processes to ensure that library resources are age-appropriate and relevant for students. Both divisions have clear mechanisms in place for any member of the school community to bring forward concerns about specific resources.”
TWUC’s incoming Chair is poet, novelist, and former Sudbury Ontario Poet Laureate, Kim Fahner, a 24-year veteran teacher within Ontario’s Catholic School system.
“This development in Alberta is a terrible step in the wrong direction,” said Fahner. “Canadian school libraries are woefully underfunded and in decline across the country. That a provincial government would attack the remaining professionals in the system this way is inexcusable.”
TWUC has a long history of supporting school library funding. We call on all provincial and territorial governments to prioritize increased funding for school libraries, and to respect the professional practice of trained teacher-librarians in curating and making books available to students.
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The Writers’ Union of Canada (TWUC) is the national organization of professionally published writers. TWUC was founded in 1973 to work with governments, publishers, booksellers, and readers to improve the conditions of Canadian writers. Now over 2,800 members strong, TWUC advocates on behalf of writers’ collective interests, and delivers value to members through advocacy, community, and information. TWUC believes in a thriving, diverse Canadian culture that values and supports writers.
For additional information:
John Degen, Chief Executive Officer
The Writers’ Union of Canada
jdegen@writersunion.ca
DATE: May 29, 2025
