BPC Bulletins

In a three-page memo sent to all of Quebec’s regional public health directors on December 16, Assistant Health and Social Services Minister Marie-Ève Bédard warns against any promotion, mention or school activities dealing with the young adult horror/supernatural novel Le garçon les pieds à l’envers (“The Boy with Inverted Feet”), posthumously published in October by popular Quebec author François Blais, a Governor General award-winner who committed suicide last May.

In Toronto, the principal of a public elementary school recently invited parents to participate in a “library audit.” Parents were given a copy of the Toronto District School Board’s Equity Toolkit, and they were told to evaluate library books according to a checklist. Ira Wells, an assistant professor of literature at the University of Toronto, took part in the audit.

A new history of Roman Catholic censorship is on the market. The Index of Prohibited Books: Four Centuries of Struggle over Word and Image for the Greater Glory of God appeared this year. Robin Vose, the book’s author, teaches at St. Thomas University in Fredericton, New Brunswick. St. Thomas University provides a news story:

PEN America has identified the 50 books that were most frequently challenged or banned in the 2021–22 school year.   CBS News briefly profiles each book (and links to PEN America’s report): https://www.cbsnews.com/pictures/the-50-most-banned-books-in-america/

The attempted murder of Salman Rushdie, the internationally acclaimed author and defender of free expression, in Chautauqua, New York, on August 12, 2022, prompted writers around the world to comment.

In Canada, female journalists, especially female journalists who belong to minorities, regularly find hateful abuse directed at them on social media and elsewhere. The abuse has provoked concern and alarm in the Canadian news media and Parliament. “This is an organized campaign to threaten and intimidate journalists into silence and undermine the freedom of the press in Canada,” said Brent Jolly, the president of the Canadian Association of Journalists (CAJ).