Alberta rewriting order banning school library books to protect classics: Smith

“We were hoping that the school boards would be able to identify those on their own and work with us to try to make sure that pornographic images are not being shown to young children.”

The revision comes after Edmonton’s public school division put together a list of more than 200 books to remove from its libraries to comply with the initial order.

The list includes Margaret Atwood’s “The Handmaid’s Tale,” Maya Angelou’s “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings,” and “Brave New World” by Aldous Huxley.

Dozens more books were set to be inaccessible to students in kindergarten through Grade 9, including George Orwell’s “Nineteen Eighty-Four” and F. Scott Fitzgerald’s “The Great Gatsby.”

Smith accused the division Tuesday of purposely misunderstanding the government’s order.

“We are not trying to remove classics of literature,” Smith said. “What we are trying to remove is graphic images that young children should not be having a look at.

“What I would like for the school boards to say is: ‘We agree! Children shouldn’t see pornographic images. We’ll work with you on that.’ And that’s what I hope the spirit going forward will be.”

Hours before Smith’s press conference, an email from Alberta’s education minister instructed school divisions to pause efforts to comply with the order until further notice.

Demetrios Nicolaides said later in a statement the list from Edmonton Public Schools prompted the government to make changes, which would be made “immediately.”

His office did not confirm when the revised order would be issued.

The initial order directed schools to remove books with sexually explicit content — for students in all grades — by the end of September. Those in Grade 10 and higher would have access to books with non-explicit sexual content.

Schools were also tasked with implementing clear policies by the new year on how the directive would be maintained.

Other divisions were expected to come up with similar book removal lists as Edmonton Public Schools, though multiple divisions said they stopped work on complying with the order because of the email from Nicolaides.

A spokesperson for the Calgary Board of Education, the city’s public school division, said its review of more than 500,000 titles has been paused.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 2, 2025.

*Pattison Media News Note: Alberta NDP leader Naheed Nenshi issued a statement Tuesday, calling the pause an another backfired attempt by the UCP to distract from their “horrific record.”

“We have the lowest funding per student in the country. The teachers are about to go on strike. Class sizes have never been larger. And what does Premier Smith think is important? Asking girls (not boys) to prove their sex and banning books,” said Nenshi.

“Of course material must be age appropriate. No one disagrees with that. But instead of funding teacher-librarians and creating common sense guidelines, they wrote a poorly thought-out ministerial order, that the Minister himself didn’t understand when he introduced it. What did they think would happen?”

Nenshi said the story here is about wasted time, wasted money, and unneeded stress.

The Alberta Teachers’ Association also chimed in, saying the decision to hit pause has turned into an “ill-timed game of Red Light, Green Light.”

“Today, the education minister says teachers should no longer take steps to cull or curate their libraries—red light. Tomorrow, it is possible that teachers could be asked once again to add this task back onto their already overflowing plates—green light,” President Jason Schilling said.

“As they prepared for the new school year, many teachers were also burdened with removing thousands of books to comply with the government’s now-defunct October 1 deadline.”

Schilling added that the government should put a full stop to policing school library material.

by Canadian Press

Alberta rewriting order banning school library books to protect classics: Smith

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