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June 2026 Issue Originally published in TEACH Magazine, March/April 2024 Issue
By Fiona Tapp
Literary and educational communities are grappling with the challenge of recent book bans across the United States. In 2022 alone there were 137 gag order bills introduced in 36 state legislatures that sought to limit what materials could be taught or made available in public schools and libraries. Like so many American trends, this one is unfortunately migrating up to Canada too, with recent news stories such as a ban on books containing LGBTQ+ themes by the Waterloo Catholic District School Board.
John Chrastka, executive director of EveryLibrary (a national political action committee dedicated to libraries), says that the current moves toward censorship highlight a dark legacy. “Limiting access to information, curtailing exposure to ideas, and diminishing opportunities to discover have never been best practices in education—or in civil society,” he notes. “The political regimes that practice censorship find themselves on the wrong side of history.”
Fiona Tapp is a former teacher and school administrator of 13 years based in Ontario. She writes about education, parenting, and travel for a variety of publications including National Geographic, The Globe and Mail, The Toronto Star, The Sunday Times, and many more.
