March 13, 2026:
Thanks to research by the Centre for Free Expression and the CBC, Albertans now know how far the Alberta government’s recent order on the selection of school library materials goes in curtailing their freedom to read. More than 200 titles have been removed from Alberta school libraries as a direct result of the ministerial order.
The Writers’ Guild of Alberta condemns this historic attack on freedom of expression and freedom to read.
As noted in our statement issued in July 2025, the ministerial order is a serious infringement on a fundamental charter right. Individuals in Canada—regardless of age—have the constitutional right to freedom to create, seek, read, and receive expression in all forms.
Most of the banned titles are graphic novels. The list includes graphic versions of familiar classics, such as Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale, George Orwell’s 1984, Dante’s Inferno, and Kurt Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse Five, along with more recent, highly acclaimed and award-winning LGBTQ+ coming of age novels, Fun Home (Alison Bechdel), Flamer (Mike Currato), and Gender Queer (Maia Kobabe). Also removed are graphic non-fiction works, covering subjects as diverse as the Enlightenment, the life of Albert Camus, and the art of cartooning.
To curtail a child’s or teen’s freedom to read means they face immediate barriers to learning. They also face restrictions on their ability to seek truths for and about themselves, to expand their imagination and understanding, and to be exposed to ideas, histories, cultures, and perspectives that differ from their own.
Attacks on freedom of expression are serious because they often have a widespread chilling effect on writers and creators, publishers and distributor, and the community more broadly. The aim of this order particularly targets queer works, readers and writers, as well as visual learners. And, as Toni Samek, professor emerita at University of Alberta’s library and information studies and a scholar in residence at the Centre of Free Expression said to the CBC, the list sends “a dangerous message to people of colour, Indigenous people, women or anyone who wants to be a writer, illustrator, educator or librarian that their perspectives are unwelcome in the province.”
In late February, the Calgary Legion #264 unexpectedly cancelled a joint WGA and Writers’ Union of Canada Freedom to Read Week booking, due to concerns that the event was about book banning and thus in “conflict with Legion policy, which requires alignment with current government regulations and guidelines.”
Not only that, Albertans now face the real possibility of the wider application of the order and increased book banning. Indeed, Premier Danielle Smith has already signaled that the ministerial order, currently restricted to school libraries, will soon be extended to cover any public library which also serves as a school library.
The WGA stands against such censorship and book bans. We urge the Alberta government to rescind the minister’s order and stop escalating attacks upon the rights and freedoms of Albertans.
We invite you to join us in standing for the right of every Albertan to enjoy the freedom of expression and the freedom to read.
– Writers’ Guild of Alberta Board of Directors
