It may be the 21st century, but threats to inclusivity and diversity continue to affect various groups of people at public institutions.
As an institution of knowledge and discovery, the Airdrie Public Library (APL) has experienced its own share of challenges when it comes to their 2SLGBTQI+ literature collections. Some of those challenges were recently documented in the CBC story "A shadow war on libraries' which ran on the longstanding program The Fifth Estate last week.
While censorship and challenges to the materials present at the libraries is nothing new, according to the APL Operations Manager, Kelly Lauzon, in the last two years the focus has changed.
From 2015 to 2022, most of the challenges and complaints made at various libraries were associated primarily with race. However, from 2022 onward, there have been a significant increase in "challenges," including acts of vandalism, associated with APL’s 2SLGBTQI+ materials.
According to the Canadian Federation of Library Associations’ database, in 2022/ 2023 in Alberta, there were 39 challenges reported, of which 74 per cent were attempts to have 2SLGBTQI+ related-books restricted or have "Drag Storytime" events cancelled.
“Unlike our other collections, our LGBTQ literature is often vandalized, materials hidden behind shelves or in other areas, including in the children’s area, and checked out in large numbers as a way to limit access,” Wyatt Tremblay, the Communications Coordinator at the APL, shared.
He added that this kind of guerrilla censorship is growing and is a concern for libraries who represent the right of all Canadians to intellectual freedom.
That happens to be the pressing concern in Airdrie: the censorship of materials that all citizens have the right to access at public libraries.
Formally challenging materials at the APL includes filling an official complaint form that the staff reviews diligently to examine its validity and find appropriate solutions if necessary.
“That’s freedom of expression; that is an encouraged form of expressing how you feel about something,” Lauzon said. “That is not a problem.
At the APL, the growing concern revolves around informal challenges.
“Those are where we’re seeing a lot of problems,” Lauzon stated. “Say we have a display for Pride Week, taking all those books and hiding them within the stacks or checking out all those books; so that no one else has access to those is the most extreme case.”
She shared another example of an extreme case that was categorized under an indirect or informal challenge at the APL.
Last year, a book called Pride Festivals by Heather C. Hudak was one of the books APL staff found thrown in the toilet.
Pride Festivals talks about 2SLGBTQ+ community, how the community has been treated in the past and the importance of Pride festivals and events as a means to become an ally to the community.
“That’s taking people’s freedom of access to material away,” Lauzon explained.
Lauzon argues that informally challenging materials in such a manner, in the library, as a form of censorship contradicts the principles of freedom and undermines the values of safety, diversity and inclusion.
“You’re actually working against freedom, not for freedom,” she said.
Sexual health education content also falls on the list of most challenged materials at libraries including APL.
The Canadian Federation of Library Associations’ database mentions from September 2022 to August 2023, some of the most challenged books were Sex is a Funny Word by Cory Silverberg and Fiona Symth, This Book is Gay by Juno Dawson, and My Body is Growing by Dagmar Geisler.
Sex is a Funny Word by Cory Silverberg and Fiona Smyth is an award winning comic book about bodies, feelings, gender and sexuality for children ages eight to ten-years-old.
This Book is Gay by Juno Dawson includes true stories based on people’s experiences, who grew up across the gender and sexual spectrum.
My Body is Growing by Dagmar Geisler introduces pre-school and elementary children about body awareness and sexual education.
“Some of these are young adult materials; so they are not meant for a junior audience to begin with,” Lauzon said.
To mitigate the challenges, Lauzon shared that the APL is focusing on the education aspect with residents.
“What we’ve always done is [try] to educate people… I think it’s becoming even more important in this kind of divisive world we’re living in to educate people about the importance of intellectual freedom and fighting against censorship of materials,” she said.
Lauzon also simply encourages residents to not check out the materials that their children or they themselves dislike.
APL also partners with Airdrie Pride to host events with voluntary attendance such as "Pages of Pride" and "Be Gay! Do Crafts," which had over 300 participants take part.They also put together a drag story time as well, which had 50 to 75 participants.
In Lauzon’s eyes, censorship is a slippery slope. The concerning questions include understanding who determines what books get bound or who determines what expressions of knowledge are acceptable.
“Where does [it] end… that’s a rhetorical question because it ends in a society without access to information because every book has the potential to offend somebody,” she said.
