Jessica Kim and Spencer Izen Fight for the Rights of Student Journalists
In the pursuit to protect Canadians’ freedom of expression, it’s imperative that we defend press freedom.
Articles
Selected stories from the Freedom to Read Review
Grunts and Twitches
The U.S.-Canada border is long, for the most part undefended and porous, so it should not come as a surprise that the battles in the United States over books and reading have crept into Canada.
Our Complicated History with Disinformation
While new technology can exacerbate our already complicated relationship with information, doing something about the problem of disinformation must be human centred.
Author Robin Stevenson Resists Organized Challenges to Books About Sexual Minorities
For our 2022 champion, supporting freedom of expression “does not mean ignoring the very real harm that results from hateful rhetoric. We all get to choose whose voices we boost, which ideas we elevate, and which words we provide space for.”
Temporary Closures Reduce Challenges to Publications and Policies in Canadian Public Libraries in 2020 and Early 2021
It is clear that Canadian library staff go to great lengths to accomplish two ends. They maintain varied and inclusive collections and services and respect the individuals who question the presence of works or speakers. The questioners are a part of the community that the library serves and deserve to have their objections dealt with seriously.
Freedom of Expression Rights and the School Library
Student freedom of expression rights are essential to education in a free and democratic society. Teacher-librarians, by virtue of their dual professional qualifications in teaching and librarianship and their dual codes of ethics, play the role of standard-bearers for freedom of expression rights within the school community.
Desmond Cole Knows This Will Be Uncomfortable
Many of our previous champions of free expression have been celebrated for their staunch defence of anyone’s and everyone’s right to expression. But Desmond Cole—the Toronto activist and author who is our champion for 2021—wants us to consider how language can be dehumanizing and even deadly.
Keeping Authors Writing in a Collapsed Economy
We talk a lot about the freedom to read and the importance of free expression, but threats to these essential freedoms don’t always come from censorious governments or inflexible ideologies. Sometimes they come from global disaster.
Top 10 Tips and Tricks to Plan Your Freedom to Read Week Virtual Event
With Freedom to Read Week 2021 taking place during a pandemic, we thought it would be helpful to provide a guide to organizing virtual events.
The Shifting Landscape for Intellectual Freedom: Recent Challenges in Canadian Libraries
Among the values guiding the work of library workers: access to information, inclusion, and neutrality. It can be difficult not to compromise one value or the other in an attempt to achieve them all.