Parent groups are among those applauding the Alberta government’s newly announced efforts to scrutinize the books appearing on library shelves in the province's schools.
Responding to the discovery of sexual content contained in numerous books in K-12 school libraries, Alberta's Minister of Education and Childcare Demetrios Nicolaides unveiled a new online survey on May 26 to enable Albertans to share input on potential new standards in selecting and managing written materials. The public had until June 6 to participate.
“As a parent, it is extremely concerning to me to find out that books explicitly depicting sexual acts are available to students in some school libraries,” said Nicolaides. “We are going to do something about this serious issue by consulting Albertans and creating standards to ensure students do not have access to age-inappropriate materials in school libraries.”
School boards will be expected to implement the new standards by the start of the 2025-26 school year. The new criteria will apply to public, separate, francophone, charter and independent schools.
Among the groups praising the plan is Parents for Choice in Education (PCE) John Hilton-O’Brien, the executive director of PCE, said his organization has been collaborating with concerned parents on this issue for multiple years. Information was sent to the provincial government last fall, igniting an investigation.
Hilton-O’Brien said “unlike passive media influences, school libraries are spaces that children are taught to trust. Material on those shelves carries the weight of authority. When you put it in the library, it's not just a book. It’s a message that the school endorses.”
He said the “consultation process is a crucial opportunity — but only if families make their voices heard over the paid activists.”
Action4Canada, a Christian grassroots movement striving to defend faith, family and freedom, characterized the public consultation as “a positive step toward restoring morality and common sense in education.”
Action4Canada had communicated with government officials for months leading up to the announcement and provided examples of some of the books being featured on library shelves. The group also provided information about the potential harms of the Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity (SOGI) 123 tools and resources for cultivating inclusive schools for students of all sexual orientations and gender identities.
Several titles deemed as inappropriate — and some the explicit passages — were spotlighted, including Gender Queer, Maia Kobabe’s graphic novel about an odyssey towards choosing to be identified as non-binary, that was found on K-9 shelves within the Calgary Board of Education and the Edmonton Public School Board. And Flamer, a semi-autobiographical novel by children’s author and illustrator Mike Curato containing “sexual activity, nudity, self-harm, violence, profanity and derogatory terms,” according to the government, is being found in elementary schools despite a 14+ recommended reading age.
Jack Fonseca, director of political operations at Campaign Life Coalition, said Nicolaides’ press conference “was an answer to prayer” and a credit to all the pro-family activists working with the United Conservative Party.
“It's also a testament to the parents who are making their voices heard to the minister, as he admitted that this information was unknown to him,” said Fonseca. “He didn't know that (there were) pornographic books in (the) schools until parents showed him the pages and he could see it for himself.”
Yet others responded cautiously to the news, including Dennis MacNeil, the president of the Public School Boards’ Association of Alberta.
“While this is a very contentious issue, we are pleased that the government is consulting with Albertans prior to deciding any course of action,” stated MacNeil.
Lori Sigurdson, an Edmonton-based NDP MLA, denounced the initiative in an X post.
“Make no mistake — this actually IS about banning books — and Smith’s administration is not the first in history to target and ban books seen as contrary to its ideology in order to control public discourse,” wrote Sigurdson.
