- Borrowing
Freedom to Read Week
Freedom to Read Week encourages Canadians to think about, support, and uplift the principles of intellectual freedom.
Try the following searches in our library catalogue to learn about censorship, freedom of expression, and more.
Book banning and book challenges have a long history in Canada. When a book challenge is made, it is an attempt to make it difficult or impossible to access the ideas, expressions, and content of a book. Challenges are often made on books in libraries and schools. To learn more about the challenging of books, please visit here.
Check out these books in the library collection that have been challenged or banned at some time in Canada.
Look the book up on Freedom To Read's full list of challenge books to see why they have been banned.
The Comic Book Legal Defense Fund (CBLDF) has a full-time job defending the works of comic book authors.
And there are comics (also known as graphic novels) that haven't been banned, but are labled to indicate they have "inappropriate content", kind of like the parental advisory labels they have on some music CDs.
You can find a list of comics that have been banned (also explaining why) on CBLDF's website. We have most these graphic novels in the Library. You can find them by searching the title and/or author in the library catalogue.
Freedom to Read week happens every February, when Canadian libraries to raise awareness about censorship and intellectual freedom.
Canadian Border Service agents can prevent anything crossing the border they've classified as violating Canadian laws around hate, propaganda, seditious or treasonous materials. They can also stop anything from coming into Canada that an agent has decided is "obscene". Wondering what is obscene?
Get the fulsome descriptions at the Canadian Border Service Agency's criteria of obscenity.
And here is CANLII Connects summary page of Vancouver's Little Sisters Bookstore v Canada, a now famous battles with Canada Customs and Revenue Agency over the Agency's seizure at the border of books and magazines purchased by the bookstore.
KPU Library and Intellectual Freedom
Kwantlen Polytechnic University is founded upon the belief that knowledge empowers the individual. The fundamental purpose of the University is to provide quality post-secondary education within an atmosphere of intellectual freedom as expressed in Principles of Academic Freedom and Responsibility.
The Kwantlen Polytechnic University Library selects materials to enhance every person's education by the right of access to all expressions of knowledge, opinion and creativity of some value or significance. For this reason, the KPU Library has the responsibility to acquire and make available a wide range of books and materials, including those which express controversial views.
This responsibility means that librarians, while recognizing the right of individuals and groups to criticize their selection, must not allow the freedom of choice within the Library to be limited by the personal views of any individual or group.