Tag: Charter of Rights and Freedoms

School Libraries and Intellectual Freedom

School Libraries should be bastions of intellectual freedom. Tragically, the School Library has always been a battleground in the struggles between those that would protect our rights and freedoms and those that would impose their beliefs on others.

This has become all too evident in the U.S. in recent years, and sadly we in Canada are not immune. Provincial Ministries of Education, School Boards, and individual schools and school libraries have been sucked into the current climate of extreme political polarization. Attacks on the freedom to read are on the rise, and include recent decisions made by the government of Alberta. The following are quotes from the response of Canadian School Libraries:

“Individual parents have the right to decide on their child’s reading, but they do not have the right to impose it on everyone.

The selection and availability of school library and learning resource materials should be made by trained professionals, not politicians and bureaucrats.

Not every book in a school library is meant for every student. Schools need to have a wide range of age and developmentally appropriate resources that cover the needs of the student population.

School library collections, with a richness and diversity that allows students to see themselves and experience lives other than their own, are developed within the lens of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms and the rights and freedoms it affords to all Canadians, including children.”


Find out more about Canadian School Libraries

Student Vote!

Today, registered voters go to the polls in the 2025 Canadian Federal Election. Meanwhile, all over our nation students are participating in a parallel mock election. Come down to the School Library today to cast your vote.

Voting is just one aspect of the democratic system, but it is a vital one. Canadians must cherish the right to vote, and must accept the serious responsibility to vote well. It is the responsibility of each citizen in a democracy to get informed with reliable and factual information, to think critically, and to exercise the right to vote.

Democracy dies not just because some seek to destroy it, but more so, because too many don’t take seriously their rights and responsibilities, both to exercise democracy, and to protect it.

Find out more:

Freedom to Read Week: Do You Know Your Banned Books?

Play a “Sporcle” that asks you to show off your knowledge of some of the most challenged books of the past few years.

Freedom to Read Week in Canada is February 23 to March 1

Get Caught Reading Banned Books

In the past few years, the number of challenges to books in both Canada and the United States has exploded. And while sanity prevails in many cases, in more and more places the censors have been successful. In some jurisdictions, hundreds and hundreds of different titles have been pulled from libraries, schools, government offices and other public institutions. In the private sector, bookstores and publishers have reported the increasing pressures of censorship. Writers have commented on the chilling effect this has on intellectual freedom.

Stand up for your rights and freedoms. Democracy is built on upon your right to information. You have the right to choose for yourself.

Adults have the right to choose for themselves what they want to read. Adults don’t have the right to choose what other people get to read. Parents have the right– and the responsibility– to teach and guide and discuss with their children about what types of library materials are right or wrong for them. Parents are free to have their opinions on what materials are good or bad for children in general They even have the right to express their opinions about why they think certain materials are good or bad for children. Parents do not have the right to decide for other people’s children what they can or can’t read.

February 23 to March 1 is Freedom to Read Week in Canada

Freedom to Read Week

February 23 to March 1, 2025, is Freedom to Read Week in Canada

From freedomtoread.ca: “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. Whether you are a librarian, bookseller, educator, student, or member of the community, there are lots of ways you can help mark this annual event.”

Visit your school library in person, or online here at tweedsmuirlibrary.ca, all week long to find out more about Freedom to Read in Canada, how you can celebrate, and how you can join in the ongoing struggle to protect your rights and freedoms.

Freedom to Read Week

February 21 to 27 is Freedom to Read Week in Canada in 2021.  Come down to the School Library to find out more.  We have a display of books and other resources related to our freedom to read, our right to have access to information, and our responsibility to exercise those rights and freedoms as informed, free-thinking citizens. 

Freedom to Read Week 2021

Along with our in person display of books, magazines, audiobooks, playaways and more, we will will also feature online resources, such as ebooks, digital audiobooks, online databases, and more, so be sure to check out our site, tweedsmuirlibrary.ca.

You can also click here to find out more about Freedom to Read Week.

Freedom to Read Week

Freedom To Read Week 2017
Freedom To Read Week 2017

Canada’s Freedom to Read Week is February 26 to March 4, 2017.

The Charter of Rights and Freedoms protects your freedom to read and many other hard fought liberties that sometimes we take for granted as Canadians. Know your rights and freedoms. Cherish them. Protect them. Exercise them.

Find out more: freedomtoreadweek.ca