Intellectual Freedom

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.

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.

Canada’s Freedom to Read Week (FTRW), an annual event inspiring us to think about and confirm our commitment to intellectual freedom, takes place from February 23 to March 1, 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.

As part of the Edmonton Public Library’s Forward Thinking Speaker Series, I was invited to talk with Margaret Atwood on freedom of expression, her writing, and moderating audience questions. Given the timing, our armchair discussion quickly turned to politics.