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Written by Dave Mabell Lethbridge Herald
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Monday, February 23 2009, 1:30 PM |
It’s almost a who’s who of writing, with names from Margaret Laurence to Mordecai Richler, John Steinbeck to Mark Twain.
All these authors — and countless more — have seen their books banned in community libraries cross North America because someone objected to what they said.
Now librarians and readers are fighting back, with a series of Freedom to Read events across Canada.
The Lethbridge Public Library has placed “caution” tape on a number of books on display this month in its south wing, representing works which have been protested or banned outright over the years. At the University of Lethbridge, another group of banned books is on view in its library — and chief librarian Alison Nussbaumer says not even universities are immune from pleas to censor books that stir anger or alarm.
“In some ways, we are a little bit sheltered,” she says. Because universities aim at providing a liberal education, they don’t often face demands to pull controversial books from their shelves.
“We emphasize intellectual freedom and freedom to read.”
But Nussbaumer says community and school libraries still hear complaints from parents or members of the general public who demand that a specific book be banned.
“It’s so common, they probably have a form to fill out.”
The Toronto school board, as an example, is currently talking with parents who’ve demanded an award-winning Margaret Atwood novel, The Handmaid’s Tale, is too adult for high school students.
Parents have laid similar charges against such classic stories as Of Mice and Men, To Kill a Mockingbird, Catcher in the Rye, Lord of the Flies and The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz.
“Public libraries have policies and procedures,” she points out, and they’re usually able to defend their decisions on which books to add to their collection. But school systems seem more vulnerable.
One of Canada’s highest-profile cases in recent years, Nussbaumer says, was in the Fraser Valley. There, some British Columbia parents demanded a ban on books dealing with families which had two fathers or two mothers — and the battle went all the way through the court system.
“It’s happened to me, too,” says Nussbaumer.
As librarian at the University of Northern B.C., she was faced by demands that an older item in the university’s collection be pulled because of its strong views on aboriginal issues.
“It was a dreadful little pamphlet,” she says.
Perhaps it served only to document how much things have changed — or haven’t changed — over the years since. But Nussbaumer says she was able to persuade the students if would be more productive to discuss and rebut the material, not remove it.
“I asked, what if you were using the Internet and I told you you could not view certain sites?”
While that could be appropriate for children, the UNBC students realized censorship was wrong in a free society.
Nussbaumer says Canadians don’t have to look back to the Lady Chatterly’s Lover debate to hear voices urging censorship. Today, she reports, it’s books dealing with abortion, religion or aspects of lesbian or gay life that attract demands they be pulled.
Not even J.K. Rowling, the author of the widely successful Harry Potter series, has escaped some parents’ wrath, Nussbaumer points out.
“They said it has too much witchcraft.”
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Last Updated ( Monday, August 10 2009, 2:28 PM )
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