Dozens of Alberta school divisions ban 170+ books, some not meeting government standards

Over 40 school boards in Alberta have now banned more than 170 books — some not following the standards outlined by the Alberta government.Back in September, Alberta school divisions were ordered to ban books according to a ministerial order issued by the Minister of Education and Childcare, Demetrios Nicolaides, ordering books with sexually explicit acts be banned by early January. However, according to the Investigative Journalism Foundation, the order is now being interpreted differently than expected — with public, separate, francophone, charter, and independent schools banning some books that are not explicitly sexual in nature.V for Vendetta was banned by the most school divisions, with 11 divisions banning it, despite not being explicitly sexual..Another, graphic novel versions of George Orwell's 1984, were banned in eight different divisions, one division banning a film adaptation of the novel.Another which does not meet the explicit sexual content criteria required to be banned — a graphic novel version of Genesis was banned by the Calgary Board of Education (CBE). Some however, are still following government standards — Blankets, by Craig Thompson, is one of four graphic novels Nicolaides had used as examples of inappropriate material, and was banned in 10 divisions. Other popular graphic novels banned by five or more divisions include Alan Moore’s Watchmen and the first Game of Thrones graphic novel by George R. R. Martin..The school library standards were introduced by the Alberta government in May 2025, but were revised to focus on restrictions on visual sexual depictions to "prevent interpretation" in September 2025. In another case, the Greater North Central Francophone Education Region removed a book, L'ABC des Filles by Catherine Girard-Audet, despite it having no inappropriate images according to the standards.The book is a collection of articles covering topics "likely to interest Quebec teenage girls,” featuring profiles of "inspiring women," according to the publisher..The Calgary Board of Education told the Western Standard in a statement its guidelines for interpreting the government's book standards were established by CBE’s Education Resources and Learning Systems (ERLS) Team.The team reviewed over 2,400 books from high school, middle school and elementary school, then allowed each school to review their collections based on established guidelines.They claim, based on the ministerial order's definition, "all items that were deemed to fit this criteria were pulled.""School boards were left in charge of removing books that fell under the scope of the [ministerial] order," Nicolaides told the Western Standard in a statement.."Some boards removed books that did not fall within scope, and we asked that those books remain on shelves.""Books that had visual depictions of sexual acts, sex toy use, or child molestation were to be removed, as those books should never be on a school library shelf.”

Dozens of Alberta school divisions ban 170+ books, some not meeting government standards

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