CFE Blog

Alberta library staff and boards face a serious dilemma. How should their libraries respond to the provincial government's unprecedented steps to override a long and unblemished tradition of local governance of Alberta’s public libraries which began 119 years ago?

It’s decision time. The Alberta government is directing you to abandon what has made your public library what it is today – locally governed, with collections based on the needs and interests of your community, local policies, and competent staff to ensure that everyone in your community finds material that is of interest to them.

The past year marked a turning point for expressive freedom in Canadian libraries. While debates over library collections, programs and services are not new, recent developments reveal a broader shift in the relationship between governments, public institutions, and the public’s right to seek information. Legislative intervention, organized censorship campaigns, and reductions in library capacity increasingly challenge libraries’ longstanding role as independent institutions that provide equitable access to information and recorded knowledge.

The government of Alberta has imposed unprecedented censorship on all public libraries in the province – a first in Canadian history. In May, the government pushed through Bill 28, giving the Minister of Municipal Affairs virtually unlimited authority over almost all aspects of all Alberta public libraries – an extreme and unwarranted attack on the province’s public library boards, staff, and administration that a recent poll found were trusted by 82% of Albertans.

In a recent opinion piece in the Toronto Star, staff journalist Justin Ling argues that to improve productivity, Canada needs to tolerate more corruption. This is nonsense – in fact the reverse is true. As he says, simply creating more bureaucracy in response to each scandal doesn’t work.

With the precipitous decline of democracy in the United States, it is all too easy to ignore that Canada’s democracy is in decline as well. We ignore the signs at our peril.