Alberta Premier Danielle Smith slammed the Edmonton Public School Board Friday morning for its banned book list, which features more than 200 titles.
The internally distributed list, which CBC News obtained Thursday, was in response to a provincial government directive to identify books that are not age-appropriate and remove them from school library shelves.
But the list included titles like The Handmaid’s Tale, The Color Purple, The Godfather and Jaws. Books from authors like George R. R. Martin, Sarah J. Maas and Maya Angelou are also on the list.
“Edmonton Public is clearly doing a little vicious compliance over what the direction is,” Smith said during an unrelated news conference.
The point of this work is to keep graphic, sexually explicit content out of elementary schools, she said.
Smith said the government will hold the school board’s hand, if needed, to help it identify what it deems appropriate for elementary, junior high and high school students.
“We will more than happily work with them to work through their list, one by one, so we can be super clear about what it is we’re trying to do,” Smith said.
The school board confirmed Friday morning that the list CBC News obtained is accurate.
Canadian author Margaret Atwood, who wrote The Handmaid’s Tale, declined to speak with CBC News, but noted in a social media post Friday that her novel was banned in Edmonton.
“Don’t read it, your hair will catch on fire! Get one now before they have public book burnings of it,” she wrote.
Hi kids .. <a href=”https://twitter.com/hashtag/HandmaidsTale?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”>#HandmaidsTale</a> (the book not the series!) has just been banned in <a href=”https://twitter.com/hashtag/Edmonton?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”>#Edmonton</a>…don’t read it, your hair will catch on fire! Get one now before they have public book burnings of it.
Education and Childcare Minister Demetrios Nicolaides announced in the spring that new rules would be coming to school libraries, after parents raised concerns to the government about four coming-of-age graphic novels — most of which show nudity and sexual 2SLGBTQ+ content — found in circulation in Edmonton and Calgary public schools.
Nicolaides signed a ministerial order, dated July 4, laying out the standards for school library materials and included definitions.
Among other things, the order states that school boards cannot allow explicit sexual content, which it defines as clear depictions of a sexual act, such as masturbation, penetrative sex, and the use of sex toys. But it holds caveats for depictions in religious texts, and non-explicit sexual content — depiction of a sexual act that isn’t detailed or clear.
During an unrelated news conference Friday morning, Nicolaides told reporters that he would be speaking with Edmonton Public Schools about its list, noting that he does have some questions about featured titles.
“Our primary interest with the ministerial order is to ensure that books that contain graphic depictions of sexual acts are provided to children in an age-appropriate way,” he said.
“I want to get a better understanding of how these books were selected and what mechanisms and method the Edmonton Public Schools has used,” he said, adding that he expects to get more information from the school board soon.
Read the full list of books below:
