Intellectual freedom is a pillar of democracy, but is only as strong as those who are upholding it. This is why for over 40 years, libraries and bookstores across Canada have celebrated Freedom to Read Week. Happening Feb. 23 to Mar. 1 this year, the week aims to encourage Canadians to reflect on our commitment to intellectual freedom. To help you practice your right to intellectual freedom, here are five challenged books by Canadian authors.
Barometer Rising (1941) by Hugh MacLennan
Neil Macrae died in disgrace — or so the story goes. Unknown to his former colonel and lover, Macrae returns to Halifax to clear his name. The Halifax Explosion of Dec. 6, 1917 interrupts the efforts, and sets the stage for a hero to emerge in the midst of a country discovering itself.
19 years after its publishing, the Manitoba School Boards Association unanimously voted to remove the book from the high school curriculum due to the vulgar language used. It was later learned that most trustees had not read the book themselves.
Lives of Girls and Women (1971) by Alice Munro
In the only full length novel from Munro, a young woman growing up in 1940s rural Ontario begins to spend more time in town with an eccentric group of women through which she explores the multifaceted sides of womanhood.
Through the mid to late 70s, the book faced numerous challenges due to its placement in Ontario’s Grade 13 English curriculum because of its content being deemed pornographic in nature. When she spoke to CBC in 1979, Munro said:
“As soon as one step is taken you have to start resisting, because that makes the next step easier. Though the people who are concerned say that they are not interested in taking books out of libraries or bookstores, I wonder if it is that they are not at this point interested in doing that.”
When Everything Feels Like the Movies (2014) by Raziel Reid
Life through Jude’s eyes is like a movie set through which readers can see what a few days as a gay teenager in a conservative town are like. This book is based on the true story of Lawrence King, who had asked a fellow male classmate to be his valentine. King was then shot and killed by that classmate in 2008.
The book won the 2014 Governor General’s Literary Award for Young People’s Literature and subsequently faced an online petition backed by concerned parents, YA authors, teachers, and others seeking to revoke the award due to the sexual conversations and fantasies that the characters engage in.
Betty: The Helen Betty Osborne Story (2015) by David Alexander Robertson, illustrated by Scott B. Henderson
Betty had attended residential school and high school in a small Manitoba town; she had dreams of becoming a teacher. But in 1971, at the age of 19, she was abducted and murdered. Initially met with indifference, Betty has come to be a figurehead for the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls movement.
This graphic novel is based on a true case, and in 2018 was put on the not recommended for use in classrooms list by Alberta Education due to it not being deemed age appropriate. Robertson called out the list, saying that discouraging teachers from using specific books is a form of censorship.
The Handmaid’s Tale (1985) by Margaret Atwood
What’s a banned book list without The Handmaid’s Tale? This modern classic is told through Offred, a Handmaid under the new social order in the former United States. It takes the Book of Genesis at its absolute word in order to deal with social unrest and a declining birth rate.
Its place in Toronto high school curriculum was challenged in 2008 for profanity, anti-Christian overtones, and sexual content. In 2009, the review by the Toronto District School Board recommended that the book remain in the curriculum for Grades 11 and 12.
With polarizing politics on the rise, it is increasingly important to protect our right to disagreement and discomfort. Library staff, booksellers, and teachers are our everyday democracy defenders, but they can’t do their job if readers don’t do theirs.
