The Writers’ Union of Canada (TWUC) is dismayed at yet another instance of censorship involving Canadian writing in schools. A Grade 12 student at Bishop Carroll High School in Calgary was barred last month from further participation with her winning entry in the prestigious national poetry recitation competition Poetry in Voice (PIV), despite her having won the competition within her own school.
Josephine Trigg was informed by school administrators that she was no longer permitted to recite the poem “Dick Pics” by poet, children’s writer, and Queen’s University professor Sarah Yi-Mei Tsiang. Trigg had performed the poem, which deals with online sexual harassment, at the Bishop Carroll High School finals for PIV, and was selected by judges to advance to regional competition. Citing concerns about age-appropriateness and faith-based values, Trigg’s school administration refused to allow her to take the poem to regionals.
“As an educator myself,” notes TWUC Chair Kim Fahner, “I can’t stress strongly enough how damaging this kind of heavy-handed censorship is to student development. High school students are prime targets for so much online harassment, but they can’t use their own voices to talk about it? It’s infuriating.”
Poetry in Voice is a 16-year-old national competition credited with bringing poetry alive for students across the country. It produces carefully curated, age-appropriate anthologies of poems in both French and English for students to choose from. Competitors recite their chosen poem live in front of an audience and a panel of judges, and the competition moves through local, regional, and national stages. The program has engaged the students of over 10,000 teachers in Canada, and is offered entirely free of charge.
“Canada has just come through our Freedom to Read Week,” Fahner says, “where we noted a disturbing increase in overt book bans, shadow-banning, and quiet censorship especially in school settings. It’s difficult enough to build a reading culture today. As a country we simply cannot be telling our young people to stop reading and engaging with literature, ever.”
– 30 –
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. With almost 3,000 members, 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: March 12, 2026
