Freedom to Read Week reminds us that our rights and freedoms are both precious and fragile. We must understand them, defend them, and exercise them. To understand the freedom to read, we must explore many overlapping issues including literacy, intellectual freedom, democracy, libraries, the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, citizenship, freedom of expression, access to information, public education, academic freedom, and more.
It is also sadly necessary for us to recognize understand, and defend ourselves from the attacks on our rights and freedoms. These take many forms, including censorship, book bans, fake news, disinformation and misinformation, science denial,anti-intellectualism, the defunding and degrading of public education, and more. All of these contribute the rise of authoriatarianism, fascism and other anti-democratic movements.
We must also exercise our freedom to read. Democratic citizenship is built upon such fundamentals as an educated and informed electorate. Democracy requires knowledgeable citizens who think critically about the issues and act accordingly. Free people are free to explore wherever their curiosity takes them. However, what good is the freedom to do something if we don’t do it?
Here are some books to help you learn more about some of these issues.
Freedom to Read Week in Canada is February 22 to 28, 2026
Lord Tweedsmuir Secondary School Library 