CALGARY, Alberta (LifeSiteNews) — Alberta Premier Danielle Smith reaffirmed the policy change to remove pornographic books from schools in the midst of backlash from LGBT activists.
In a September 2 press conference, Smith revealed that Alberta is working on an order banning pornographic books in school libraries following allegations that the province was banning over 200 books, including classics.
“It’ll be paused for a couple of hours while the ministerial order is rewritten,” Smith said, referring to the pornography ban in schools. “The direction will be to take books with pornographic images out of the libraries and to leave the classics alone. I think that there was some misunderstanding of the order, so it’s being made clear.”
“We are hoping that the school boards understand what we’re trying to achieve,” she continued, adding that school boards will be sent a new ministerial order shortly.
In May, Alberta announced that its plan to ban books with sexually explicit as well as pornographic material, many of which contain LGBT and even pedophilic content, from all school libraries.
Under the new guidelines, all sexual books for school children under grade 10 will be totally banned. For students in Grade 10 and older, books containing non-explicit sexual content will be permitted.
The crackdown on sexually charged content in school libraries comes after several severely sexually explicit graphic novels were found in school libraries in Calgary and Edmonton. The United Conservative Party shared a list of the books, unfiltered, some of which can be found in libraries that kindergarten students can access.
The books in question, found at multiple school locations, are Gender Queer, a graphic novel by Maia Kobabe; Flamer, a graphic novel by Mike Curato; Blankets, a graphic novel by Craig Thompson; and Fun Home, a graphic novel by Alison Bechdel.
The books show images of multiple sexual acts, including homosexual and transsexual, as well as pedophilic and incestuous content. It is not yet known if these books have been removed from school shelves.
However, LGBT activists have attacked the new policy as censoring literature. According to a list from an Edmonton school, sent to CBC News, over 200 books were being pulled from school libraries, including classics such as George Orwell’s 1984 and The Handmaid’s Tale.
Smith quickly responded to these allegations, reaffirming that Alberta is not censoring literature but protesting innocent children from reading pornographic books at school.
“I’m going to be more explicit than usual so there is no misunderstanding this policy,” she wrote on X.
“1. Get graphic pornographic images out of school libraries. 2. Leave the classics on the shelves. 3. We all know the difference between the items in 1 and 2. Let’s not play any more games in implementing this policy for our kids,” Smith declared.
