Be sure to visit your School Library as we focus on our “Freedom to Read.” One of the most important weeks of the year, Freedom to Read Week, takes place Feb 22-28.
Join with us as we use this week to
Learn more about our Rights and Freedoms, including our rights to information, inquiry, and expression.
Learn about the forces at work to erode and deny our rights and freedoms, including censorship and attempts to restrict or ban books and other media.
Celebrate the week by exercising our freedom to read the materials that we choose freely.
Freedom to Read Week is an annual event that encourages Canadians to think about and reaffirm their commitment to intellectual freedom.
Freedom to Read Week provides an opportunity for Canadians to focus on issues of intellectual freedom as they affect your community, your province or territory, our country, and countries around the world.
In 2026 the Lunar New Year, also known as , the Spring Festival, Chinese New Year, and many other names, begins on February 17 and celebrations will continue for several weeks all over the globe. Canadians join with many millions of people in Asia, and millions more of Asian Heritage around the world, to celebrate the Year of the Horse.
The celebrations around this event include many different local practices and are known by many names around the world, including Tet (Vietnam); Seollal (Korea); Koshogatsu or “Little New Year” (Japan). Multiday, and even multiweek festivals will take place around the world on the days and weeks of late January and early February. The Lantern Festival is an example of an associated event that takes place several weeks into the new year.
In North America it is often called Chinese New Year, although the Chinese themselves are more likely to refer to it as the Spring Festival. Moreover, the term “Lunar New Year” is more reflective of the multi-ethnic and multicultural nature of the celebrations. In Canada this is especially important, as many Canadians trace their roots to many different parts of the world, including China, but also to many other places in East Asia such as Korea, the Philippines, Vietnam and Japan.
The Islamic month of Ramadan begins next week. Ramadan is a month of fasting, prayer and other acts for devotion for Muslims. Ramadan Mubarak and Ramadan Kareem!
The month of Ramadan officially begins with the sighting of the crescent moon, a day after the new moon. Most look to the official declaration from Mecca in Saudi Arabia, however some countries make their own declaration, which could be off the others by a day. In the Greater Vancouver area it is projected that Ramadan will begin on February 18.
We wish Ramadan Mubarak and Ramadan Kareem to the more than one million Canadians who follow Islam, and to our approximately 2 billion Muslim neighbours around the world.
On February 15 in 1965 the new Canadian flag, with our current Maple Leaf design, was raised for the first time. On the same day in 1996, National Flag Day was established.
Celebrate Flag Day in recognition of the ways in which our flag can act as a unifying symbol. “Our national flag is a symbol that unites Canadians and reflects the common values we take pride in — democracy, inclusion and equity.” (source)
Canadians have traditionally been less enthusiastic about overt displays of patriotism than some others around the world. Many are aware about how “flag waving” might sometimes lead to excessive expressions of patriotism such as nationalism, jingoism and xenophobia. We can express pride in our country and the ideals and values for which we strive. When such pride grows into feelings of our superiority, and worse, a subsequent fear or hatred of others, patriotism becomes a dangerous prospect.
The flag became even more complicated for many Canadians during the Covid pandemic earlier this decade. Displaying the Canadian flag became associated with the anti-vax movement and similar anti-science and anti-intellectual trends. Sadly, many Canadians felt like the flag had been stolen from them and were uncomfortable with the thought of flying the Maple Leaf.
In recent years, Canadians have become more comfortable with efforts to “take back the flag.” This is especially true in light of continued threats to our sovereignty from a once trusted neighbour, trading partner and ally. Canadians who once were shy about overt acts of patriotism rightfully feel a responsibility to stand up for our country.
Take back your flag. Wave the flag to cheer on our athletes as they compete in the Winter Olympics. Wave the flag, not just because of our successes and achievements, but indeed, because we have the humility to acknowledge our failures and the ways in which we are committed to improvement. Wave the flag, not as symbol of superiority, or hate, or fear, but as a symbol of the values that Canada wants to uphold.
February is Black History Month in Canada. Come down to your School Library to find out more as we celebrate and learn about Black Canadians. We will also look at Black History from the perspective of African-Americans, and the African Diaspora around the globe.
Imbolc is celebrated February 1 to 2. The traditions of Imbolc reach back deep into the pagan history of the Celtic peoples of Ireland and its neighbours. With the Christianization of Ireland, Imbolc was replaced by St. Brigid’s Day . Imbolc as a cultural event has seen a resurgence in recent years, mainly in the neo-pagan community. Imbolc has also grown in popularity amongst others who desire to celebrate traditional Irish/Celtic culture, particularly in regards to the connections with nature and the cycles of the year.
Roughly halfway between the winter solstice and the spring equinox, Imbolc was celebrated as the start of Spring. Imbolc was associated with new life and fertility, particularly the arrival of lambs. Imbolc was also strongly associated with the Goddess Brigid. When Christianity arrived in Ireland in the early 5th, pagan traditions were often adapted to the new beliefs. Imbolc became known as St. Brigid’s Day. Along with St, Patrick and St. Columba, St. Brigid was a patron saint of Ireland. She may or may not have been a real person, and many historians believe that real person or not, her name was borrowed directly from the pagan goddess.
January 27 is International Holocaust Remembrance Day. Join with us as we take this day to remember the many millions who died during the Holocaust, to learn more about what happened, and resolve to fight against anti-Semitism, racism and other forms of hate and violent oppression.
The term “Holocaust” refers to the period in history in which the Nazi regime of Germany murdered over 6 million Jews, as well as millions of other victims, including Roma, homosexuals, people with physical and mental disabilities, and more. The Nazi persecution of the Jews began in the early 1930’s and reached its most horrific and brutal peak during the period of 1941-1945, as the Nazis adopted as official policy the “Final Solution,” the attempt at completely annihilating the entire Jewish population.
Source: CC / Sienda
The Holocaust is not the only example of genocide in human history. What makes the Holocaust stand out amongst the long and plentiful list of human atrocities and evil? Germany was amongst the most powerful nations of the world and a leader in science, technology, medicine and engineering. The German contributions to art, music, literature and philosophy put German culture at the heart of what we would call Western Civilization. And yet this supposedly civilized people turned their great achievements and progress towards planning and carrying out ruthless genocidal murder with scientific and economic efficiency.
Children selected for extermination source: wikimedia commons / public domain
The date of January 27 was chosen for this solemn observance as the death camp of Auschwitz-Birkenau was liberated on January 27, 1945.
Auschwitz Death Camp source: Diego Delso, Wikimedia Commons, License CC-BY-SA 3.0
Lincoln Alexander was born on this day in 1922 in Toronto. He would go on to become Lt. Governor of Ontario.
Mr. Alexander was the son of immigrants from Jamaica and St. Vincent and the Grenadines. He would grow up in Toronto, serve in the RCAF during World War Two, earn degrees from McMaster University and York University, and eventually go on to practice law. In the 1960’s he entered politics, and in 1968 was elected to the House of Commons, the first Black Canadian to become a Member of Parliament. He would later become the first Black Canadian to become a Cabinet Minister, serving in the brief Joe Clark government of 1979. In 1985 Lincoln Alexander became the Lt. Governor of Ontario, a post he held until 1991, again the first Black Canadian to hold a vice-regal position. Mr. Alexander died in 2012. In 2015 the government of Canada established January 21 as Lincoln Alexander Day.
Lord Tweedsmuir Secondary School Library 
