Alberta is one step closer to “The Handmaid’s Tale” 

Alberta Premier Danielle Smith started banning books, and now Canada is one step closer to the dystopian novels we read growing up.

On July 4, Alberta’s United Conservative Party government issued a ministerial order banning library content containing “sexually-explicit” material for grades K-12 in all public schools in the province. These materials are set to be pulled by Oct. 1. 

After the list of books intended to be banned from Edmonton public schools was leaked — including I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings, 1984 and The Handmaid’s Tale — parents, teachers and students took to social media to express their outrage. Smith paused the order to clarify its criteria, suggesting the school board purposefully stoked public outrage by banning more books than necessary.

Chair of Canadian School Libraries, Joseph Jeffery, says if the government wants to properly enforce selection criteria, they should leave it to those with the expertise.

“Get real teachers, real teacher-librarians to . . . come up with this selection criteria in a way that makes sense and fits within what other jurisdictions across Canada are doing,” he says. 

But my question is, why do we allow book banning at all? 

Smith did not campaign on a book ban promise — and the backlash in Edmonton communities proves it’s not widely supported. There are also already people who determine what material is appropriate for students checking out books — librarians. Why would they stack their shelves with obscene, pornographic material intended to corrupt the minds of the children they’ve dedicated their lives to teaching? 

If Smith proposed this ban to protect children from inappropriate material, why wasn’t this part of her campaign? Why was the criteria so broad and undefined, with little followup on actual implementation? And why is this only a recent concern? As far as I know, there was no recent uptick in indecent material lining Alberta library shelves.

There was, however, an uptick in book banning in America. 

Republicans under President Donald Trump have banned books in multiple states, citing anything from sexually explicit content to the promotion of diversity.

Smith and other conservative figures in Alberta are practicing what I would describe as performative fascism. They know book bannings are widely considered a dictatorial action. However, they also know they’re popular within the current conservative sphere. 

Smith has a history of following political trends emerging from Trump-era America. 

She banned trans women from competing in women’s sports, cited conspiracy theories about the Ukrainian war stemming from American alt-right news correspondent Tucker Carlson, promoted alternative cures for COVID-19 and even likened individuals who are vaccinated to Germans following Hitler. 

These political stances were promoted and made popular by Trump’s conservative base. Smith’s new wish to introduce book banning to Canada is no different. She is following a conservative wave to gain favouritism among the far-right of her base. 

What makes this even more infuriating is the way this weak attempt to cater to the few comes at a cost to the students of Alberta. Book banning deprives students of thought-provoking and mind-expanding material. When you take this literature away from students, you deny them the opportunity to find new ways to express themselves and new viewpoints to engage with. 

The students of Alberta should not suffer because Smith wants points with conservatives. 

The Handmaid’s Tale author Margaret Atwood released a short story critiquing the government’s order. She describes a world in which children “practiced selfish rapacious capitalism” while “The Handmaid’s Tale came true and Danielle Smith found herself with a nice new blue dress but no job.”

Atwood’s response is dark, but true, reiterating what her own novels warn. No good can come from governments that ban books.