Our Libraries in the News: Insights and Implications for 2025
Canadian libraries don’t exist to coerce anyone’s beliefs or commitments. However, varying opinions about what should or should not be available in Canada’s publicly funded libraries surfaced as a constant topic in the Canadian media in 2024. I’ll point to a small sample of this coverage to make the point, as well as identify a few expressive freedom features on the 2025 landscape we can see through this library-focused lens.
In early January 2024, an “anti-SOGI 123” [Sexual Orientations and Gender Identities] group targeted public and school libraries in 100 Mile House, B.C., with a book ban campaign. By the end of January, the Canadian Federation of Library Associations (CFLA-FCAB) released an unprecedented Letter to the Federal Government regarding the Charter’s section 2(b). Its primary intention was to nudge federal ministers to take a strong stand on the right guaranteed under Section 2(b)of the Charter: “freedom of thought, belief, opinion, and expression, including freedom of the press and other media of communication.” This is valuable advocacy. Looking ahead, it is paramount not to overlook jurisdictional library language in provincial and territorial legislation, and to recognize successful library advocacy co-occurs at all levels, from local and regional, to provincial and territorial, to national and international.
As winter unfolded, it was crystal clear library news coverage in Canada is connected to the polarized culture wars in the U.S., where there were (and still are) media reports of library challenges, bans, protests and counter-protests, defunding, bomb threats, First Amendment audits, ceded boards, and new legislation including to ban book bans. In February, Quebec Culture Minister Mathieu Lacombe censured the burning of a local author’s book by a Republican candidate for secretary of state in Missouri who used a flame-thrower on library books to burn books they deemed dangerous for kids. This included the English translation, Naked: Not Your Average Sex Encyclopedia, of Tout nu by Myriam Daguzan Bernier and illustrator Cécile Gariépy. As a result, a motion passed unanimously at Quebec's National Assembly decrying censorship.
We might be accustomed to knowing Canadian libraries as leading intellectual freedom institutions. However, it has become a new normal to regularly see people who work in and serve as trustees for our libraries criticized for protecting access to information when individuals or groups call for: removal or restricted access to library collection resources (and sister K-12 curriculum resources); cancellation or modification of library-sponsored programs or speakers; removal, restricted access to, or altering of library artworks, exhibits or displays; cancellation or limiting of library space usage, including for third party meeting room bookings; and more. Not so often in our experience, though, staff, trustees, or members of the public criticize a library for not defending intellectual freedom.
Yet in 2024, there were numerous instances in which libraries were viewed as a source of censorship. In February, for example, the Jewish Public Library of Montreal restored Élise Gravel's books to its shelves following a censorship controversy related to social media posts by Gravel criticizing the Israeli government's attacks on Gaza.
Also apparent in 2024 were increasingly varied forms of library challenges (e.g., social media, protest and counterprotest, petition) beyond the more traditional methods of expressing an informal concern to staff or filing a formal challenge through a prescribed reconsideration policy and process. One such visible tactic was to display dissent directly outside library buildings. In March, for example, public library staff in London, Ontario deplored anti-rainbow graffiti scribbled in chalk on sidewalks outside the Crouch on Hamilton Road and Landon in Wortley Village branches.
A hyper-focus on kids, gender identity, sexual orientation and sex education has been building across Canada. In spring 2024, we learned the Saskatchewan government was developing a framework with the potential to permit third party organizations to teach sex education in schools. In 2023, the province banned third parties from presenting on this subject. This censorship caused organizations dealing with sexual assault to turn from schools to public libraries. Unfortunately, this swing means fewer kids have access to critical information. This is especially concerning given the May 2024 CFLA-FCAB Statement on the status of school libraries in Canada. This urgent rhetoric condemns the poor status of Canadian school library programs and services, identifies it as a core threat to democratic education, and affirms “all students have the same rights inquiry and access to information as any library user, and these rights should not be impeded by political or ideological considerations.”
This is a pressing set of problems facing librarianship and education in Canada. We can expect they will persist, if not worsen, in 2025 without a plan for intervention. A plan that directly involves the expertise, experience, advocacy and leadership of colleagues at Canadian School Libraries (a member association of CFLA-FCAB and the International Association of School Libraries) and provincial and territorial school library associations.
Facing the rising trend of censorship in libraries, with a heavy emphasis on rainbow communities, as we see in our schools, the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA) staged the Unshelving Voices symposium attended by librarians, educators, activists, and allies to address these challenges. The two-day event (August 6-7, 2024) was co-hosted by the LGBTQ+ Special Interest Group, Advisory Committee on Freedom of Access to Information and Freedom of Expression, School Library Section, and Management of Library Associations Section. Looking ahead, this level of cooperation reinforced at the international level is paramount to add weight to library issues on the ground in Canada.
Also of global concern, are issues over the Gaza war. Alongside so many institutions in society, libraries have been a site for Gaza-related actions and reactions. In May, Simon Fraser University (SFU) students occupied the Belzer Library, demanded the university divest from military assets supplied to Israel and called for an immediate ceasefire. These students comprised part of a coalition of SFU groups engaged in multi-pronged activity reflective of similar protests around the world. This incident serves as an important reminder that academic libraries, are key locations for examining boundaries and limits to intellectual freedom, academic freedom, workplace expression, and the chill or self-censorship on our campuses.
In the Canadian library community, as elsewhere, some engage in inside censorship, self-censorship, and prior restraint in the library. Regrettably, this is in part to avoid anticipated controversy and consequences. But this only causes more controversy. An act of unilateral censorship by a library employee may be subject to discipline up to and including termination of employment. There are only a few justifiable reasons for granting a challenge: a situation in which there is a violation of the library’s legal obligations or of a library’s policy.
Libraries welcome critique (e.g., questioning items in the collection or library policies) because it can lead to constructive feedback and critical community support helping to advance the mission, vision and values of the library. In May 2024, the Simcoe County 4 Palestine group praised the Bradford West Gwillimbury Public Library for overturning its decision to cancel a showing of the award-winning film 200 Meters.
Not all scenarios go like this one. Sometimes, for example, illegal-means are used to censor material. In August 2024, Derek Reimer was convicted of criminal harassment and four breaches of bail conditions because of the nature of his protests of Reading With Royalty events at the Calgary Public Library.
Sometimes censorship is achieved through less dramatic means. In October, citing safety issues, Carleton University opted to delay (with no future date identified) an exhibition in the MacOdrum Library concerning the destruction of educational institutions in Palestine. The head of the Parti Québécois, Paul St-Pierre Plamondon censured the Mercier Library for, in his view, promoting a religious incursion by way of posting a photograph of a girl in a hijab for a story-time program. Also in the fall, artist Yafang Shi asserted to the Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario the Aurora Public Library, its directors and the Town of Aurora discriminated and took reprisals against her stemming from censorship of photographs that were part of her March 2023 exhibit at the library.
In October, alongside the local union, I spoke with a reporter at Windsor Star about the concerning appointment based on no recruitment of the new Windsor Public Library CEO, because the person appointed had no experience in the field of librarianship. To quietly install someone at the helm of an urban public library lacking demonstrable experience and education in intellectual freedom, censorship and librarianship in the year 2024 is deeply problematic no matter how accomplished they are outside of the field. There is too much at stake for democracy to start behind the library gate.
As the year drew to its close, in December 2024, the Thunder Bay Police began investigating a targeted threat to The Thunder Bay Public Library in advance of a scheduled story-time event with Thunder Bay Drag Queens. On Christmas Day, we learned how the Calgary Public Library eluded critical damage following a cyberattack earlier in the year. Such attacks are designed to threaten privacy and confidentiality – conditional hallmarks of expressive freedom.
Given Canadian news coverage related to libraries, intellectual freedom and censorship was a constant throughout 2024, we can expect it will sustain into 2025. Since the 2024 coverage reflects varied library sectors and issues of the highest magnitude, we can anticipate the field of librarianship will be under continued scrutiny from within and without its ranks.
As we embark on 2025, let’s recognize with appreciation the many journalists who provided a powerful dual focus (microscopic and telescopic) on Canadian libraries, intellectual freedom and censorship. It would be a grave mistake to underestimate the fact they, in part, depend on libraries to bring us the news in any form or concentration!
