"Freedom of thought, belief, opinion and expression” are guaranteed freedoms in the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. Despite this fact, every year, books are censored, challenged, or even outright banned in libraries, schools, and bookstores across Canada.
Freedom to Read Week, which runs from Feb. 20-26, is an annual event that encourages Canadians to think about and reaffirm their commitment to intellectual freedom. This year for Freedom to Read Week, the University Library has set up displays in the Education and Music, Law, and Murray libraries that highlight books in our collections which have been banned or challenged in Canada for a variety of different reasons. These include both works of fiction and non-fiction.
We have also created an online Freedom to Read Week guide, which includes links to other challenged books in our collections and explanations of why they've been challenged, as well as photos of previous displays and many additional online resources. We encourage you to learn more about intellectual freedom, and perhaps even to borrow a challenged book and find out for yourself what all the fuss is about! You can even follow along on our social media accounts as we post throughout Freedom to Read Week. Find what other people, libraries, and organizations are doing by searching for the hashtags #FTRWeek and #FreedomtoRead on social media.
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