Freedom to Read Week Book Talk

Freedom to Read Week is an opportunity to celebrate and reaffirm our commitment to both freedom of expression and intellectual freedom, which are guaranteed to all Canadians under the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

Freedom to read can never be taken for granted, even in countries with such protections. In the U.S., the American Library Association tracks challenges to books in schools and libraries and over the past year, they have recorded a marked increase in such challenges and removals. Canadian libraries and schools are not immune to challenges against books either; the most recent survey results conducted by the Canadian Federation of Library Associations’ Intellectual Freedom Committee from 2019-2021 recorded 48 challenges to materials in libraries across the country, 11 taking place in British Columbia. In 2022, efforts by Chilliwack school board trustees to remove materials they deemed inappropriate for students made the news and highlighted the issue of book-banning and censorship locally. Already this year, Coquitlam Public Library experienced protestors and counter-protestors for their drag queen story time.

Douglas College Library is marking our commitment to freedom of expression, intellectual freedom and the freedom to read on Thursday, February 16 by hosting a Freedom to Read Book Talk on Zoom. This event will take place from 3:30pm to 5:00pm.

Join us for a chance to share about a title that you’ve read that has been challenged or banned. If you want to see if a book you’ve enjoyed has ever been challenged, check out this list of challenged titles in Canada, or take a peek at the American Library Association’s Banned & Challenged Books page to see titles have been frequently challenged in the U.S. We’ve also put together a list of some of the books in the Douglas Library Collection that were challenged in 2022.

Register to attend!
The Freedom to Read Week Book Talk is open to all, including students, employees and community members. You are welcome to come and hear others speak about their chosen challenged titles even if you don’t have anything to share yourself, and for those who are able to stay to the end, you’ll have a chance to enter a draw to win one of three recently challenged titles.

Please join us!

Community Guidelines

• We encourage caring and respectful dialogue and discussion and language that supports creating a welcoming, diverse and inclusive environment for all event participants.  

• We ask that participants kindly respect the privacy of other attendees by not disclosing any personal information about our attendees outside of the session.  

• We will not tolerate any discriminatory, hurtful, or derogatory language nor any bullying or harassment at our events.  Such behaviours will result in removal from the event.