Intellectual freedom is the right of all people to hold and express opinions without interference and to seek, receive, and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers. Intellectual freedom is recognized by the United Nations’ Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Article 19, as a basic human right.
The CFE-CFLA/FCAB Canadian Library Challenges Database provides access to challenges libraries have faced to items in their collection, and to displays, programs, room usage, and computer access.
Alberta Education Minister Demetrios Nicolaides is responsible for arguably the largest ban of school library books in Canadian history. The first Alberta school board to apply his Ministerial Order has had to ban 226 of currently-held books from all its schools because they contained passages with “explicit sexual content” as defined by the Minister’s Order.
The Government of Alberta embarrassed itself and all Canadians when Education Minister Demetrios Nicholaides issued a directive in July to all Alberta school boards banning from all Alberta school libraries, both elementary and secondary, a wide array of books that met his definition of having any “sexually explicit content” or “non-sexually explicit content” whatsoever.
17th Century puritanism has come back to life in the Alberta Government. Last week, its Minister of Education, Demetrios Nicolaides signed a Ministerial Order that is jaw-dropping.
Concerned that some Alberta school libraries have books that are too sexually explicit, he decided to solve the problem.
The Centre for Free Expression (CFE) at Toronto Metropolitan University announced today that Michelle Arbuckle is joining the CFE Working Group on Intellectual Freedom. The Working Group guides CFE’s work in assisting libraries across Canada in promoting and defending intellectual freedom and in resisting demands for censorship.
On Monday, May 26th, 2025, Alberta Minister of Education Demetrios Nicolaides announced that the government was bringing in new rules to ensure only "age-appropriate" books are available in school libraries in the province.
