By Connor McMillen
“Libraries have a core responsibility to safeguard and facilitate access to constitutionally protected expressions of knowledge, imagination, ideas, and opinion, including those which some individuals and groups consider unconventional, unpopular or unacceptable […] Libraries provide, defend and promote equitable access to the widest possible variety of expressive content and resist calls for censorship and the adoption of systems that deny or restrict access to resources” (CFLA, 2019, para. 6).
-Canadian Federation of Association Libraries (CFLA), 1974
The freedoms of thought and expression are cornerstones of human rights legislation in democracies across the world. In Canada, these rights are protected by Section 2 of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, which states that all individuals are entitled to: “a) freedom of conscience and religion,” and, “b) freedom of thought, belief, opinion, and expression” (n.d, para. 4-5). Social and cultural institutions, such as libraries, play a key role in fostering these values throughout their societies.
Notice the phrase in the quotation from the CFLA, “including those which some individuals and groups consider unconventional, unpopular, or unacceptable.” Freedom of conscience entails the ability to believe in the world as one sees it, regardless of the opinions of others. The library is an essential service for guaranteeing these freedoms, as libraries are gateways for Canadians, “to advance themselves through literacy, lifelong learning, social engagement, and cultural enrichment” (CFLA, 2019, para. 5).
As the data referenced in this post illuminates, support for censorship is a growing trend in Canadian society. The Centre for Free Expression (n.d) defines censorship as the, “suppression of words, images, or ideas that are deemed ‘harmful’ by those attempting to impose their personal, political, religious, or moral values on others,” while also noting that it can be carried out not only by governments, but private actors as well (para. 1). In this post, I use the word censorship in a manner that some may find overly broad, but I believe it is important to discuss these issues in terms that raise awareness of the values at stake. As Halifax Public Libraries succinctly puts it: “when we act to suppress access, we engage in censorship” (2021, para. 4).
Source: Nyby, M. (2023). A Rising Tide of Censorship: Recent Challenges in Canadian Libraries. Freedom to Read. https://www.freedomtoread.ca/articles/rising-tide-of-censorship-recent-challenges-in-canadian-libraries/
The organization “Freedom to Read” has compiled a report of books requested to be removed and events requested to be cancelled at Canadian libraries in recent years. As their data illuminates, the vast majority in the recent uptick of censorship efforts has been directed against LGBTQIA+ literature and events. Frequently, the complaints bear no relationship to the content of the texts. For instance, the most challenged book from September 1, 2022, to August 31, 2023, was My Body is Growing, on the basis that it is “soft porn for kids,” and contains, “nudity, pornography, sexual photos,” and, “pedophilia” (Nyby, 2023, para. 6). It is worth noting that, with regards to the complaint that the book contains sexual photos, there is not a single photograph contained in the text (para. 7). This is a particularly egregious example of an attempt to censor, as at least one complainant apparently has not examined the text in question.
The year 2022 saw censorship efforts in the category of military nonfiction, a trend not recognized in previous years, as certain books were accused of promoting Russian disinformation following the invasion of Ukraine (Nyby, 2023, para. 9). In the case of a complaint at a particular Greater Victoria Public Library, against the book The Truth About Ukraine by Igor Prokopenko, the library acquiesced to the challengers’ demands. The library failed to recognize that the library’s carrying of a book is not an endorsement of the book’s contents.
There are precedents for rejecting the argument that because a book promotes disinformation, it should be censored. In the case of the disgraced Holocaust denier David Irving, challenges attempting to censor his texts have often been dismissed. The military historian Sir John Keegan believed that Irving’s book Hitler’s War could not be ignored by historians. The iconoclast journalist Christopher Hitchens commented that Irving was not only, “a Fascist historian,” but that he was also, “a great historian of Fascism” (Buruma, 2001, para. 2). A substantial segment of scholarly opinion determined that while the book’s thesis was preposterous, the book still had ideational content worth preserving. This is why, in 2004, the Ontario Kitchener Public Library retained their copy of Hitler’s War in the face a complaint (Freedom to Read, 2004, para. 1). During tumultuous times, such as our current moment with wars in Ukraine and the Middle East, this is when the library’s duty to protect access to resources, accuracies and inaccuracies aside, is most vital.
To believe that censorious attitudes aggregate solely towards the political right would be a mistake. 2021’s most popular target of censorship efforts was Abigail Shrier’s Irreversible Damage: The Transgender Craze Seducing Our Daughters, which had a total of 18 complaints lodged against it (CFLA, 2021, para. 22) on the grounds that it promoted transphobia. So forceful and organized (Halifax Public Libraries, 2021, para. 2) were some of the campaigns against this book’s place in the library that the CFLA issued a statement in support of libraries’ choices to retain it (CFLA, 2021, para. 6). While the number 18 may appear to be small, it is worth noting that only a small fraction of censorship requests are ever reported, and the number is likely far higher (Nyby, 2023, para. 2).
Source: Canadian Federation of Library Associations. CFLA Releases Results From 2022 Intellectual Freedom Survey. Intellectual Freedom Challenges Survey. http://cfla-fcab.ca/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/2022-Report-FnlE3.docx.pdf
All the evidence reviewed here, including the most recent report published on this topic, the 2023 Intellectual Freedom Survey, indicates that this trend toward censorship in Canadian libraries is only growing. The current peak is 144 challenges in 2023 (CFLA, 2024, para. 2), a 58% increase from 91 in the previous year. Libraries have, for the most part, stood fast against these challenges, but what can be done to reverse these trends? It is past time to reconsider the CFLA philosophy on public libraries. They are a force for education, for access to information, and for the pursuit of truth as the individual sees it, regardless of the opinions of others. We can and must acknowledge that, while those facing the most immediate danger from censorship efforts are people in the LGBTQIA+ community, censorship poses a threat to the human rights of everybody. In conclusion, we should recall the warnings and recommendations from Freedom to Read’s urgent report, and to promulgate them as widely as possible:
“In light of the recent deluge of aggressive and often exclusionary censorship efforts stemming primarily from the political right, it is clear that at least from a practical standpoint, a strong commitment to intellectual freedom in libraries serves to protect the rights of vulnerable communities. Intellectual freedom has been a pillar of library philosophy for nearly a century; and in our current climate, it is perhaps our most valuable tool in our efforts to amplify the voices of the most marginalized within our communities” (Nyby, 2023, para. 10).
(Nyby, 2023, para. 10).
References
Buruma, I. (2001, April 8). Blood Libel. The New Yorker. https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2001/04/16/blood-libel
Canadian Federation of Library Associations. (2019, April 12). Statement on Intellectual Freedom and Libraries. Canadian Federation of Library Associations. http://cfla-fcab.ca/en/guidelines-and-position-papers/statement-on-intellectual-freedom-and-libraries/
Canadian Federation of Library Associations. (2021, July 30). CFLA Intellectual Freedom Brief on Challenges to Irreversible Damage by Abigail Shrier. Librarianship.ca. https://librarianship.ca/news/cfla-if-irreversible-damage/
Canadian Federation of Library Associations. (2023, May 29). CFLA-FCAB Intellectual Freedom Challenges Survey 2022 Report. Intellectual Freedom Challenges Survey. http://cfla-fcab.ca/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/2022-Report-FnlE3.docx.pdf
Canadian Federation of Library Associations. (2024, April 25). Titles, Authors, and Events Challenged in 2023. Intellectual Freedom Challenges Survey. http://cfla-fcab.ca/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/Titles-List-2023-4.docx.pdf
Centre for Free Expression. (n.d). Censorship. https://cfe.torontomu.ca/issues/censorship
Freedom to Read. (n.d) Hitler’s War. https://www.freedomtoread.ca/challenged-works/hitlers-war/
Government of Canada. (n.d). THE CONSTITUTION ACTS 1867-1982. Justice Laws Website. https://laws-lois.justice.gc.ca/eng/const/page-12.html
Halifax Public Libraries. (2021, May 27). Response: Community Petition for Book Removal. https://www.halifaxpubliclibraries.ca/news/response-community-petition-for-book-removal/
Nyby, M. (2023). A Rising Tide of Censorship: Recent Challenges in Canadian Libraries. Freedom to Read. https://www.freedomtoread.ca/articles/rising-tide-of-censorship-recent-challenges-in-canadian-libraries/
Connor McMillen is a postgraduate student in the Research Analyst program at Humber Polytechnic. He is currently working as a Research Analyst co-op student with the Ontario Ministry of Education and holds a Bachelor of Arts degree, with majors in English and Cultural Studies, from the University of British Columbia. This work first started as a research blog assignment for a Research Communications Skills for Business course and later resubmitted for publication to Generation1.ca.
