Freedom to Read Kits and Posters

The Freedom to Read Week 2023 poster features an illustration by Jessica Bromley Bartram. Design and layout: Boyd Gordon.

The Freedom to Read Week 2022 poster features an illustration by Jane Mount. Design and layout: Boyd Gordon.

This year’s Freedom to Read poster was illustrated by Michael DeForge and designed by Boyd Gordon.

This issue includes a profile of David Eby, the attorney general of British Columbia; a 50-year history of Toronto’s Glad Day Bookshop; views from five writers on various challenges to our freedom to read, write and publish; and more.

FEATURES: Jumping on the Social Media Bandwagon — Champion of Free Expression: Franklin Carter — Bridging the Digital Divide: How to Ensure Internet Access Is a Reality for All — Two Cree Writers in Conversation About the Freedom to Read and Language Revitalization — Meanwhile in Quebec: Is It Censorship?…

FEATURES: Dorothy Macnaughton’s Fight for More Accessible Reading Materials — Lauren Matera on Defenders of Free Expression — Kirsten Wurmann on The Right to Read: A Prison Story — and more!

FEATURES: Charles Monpetit: Quebec’s Anti-Censorship Fighter — Trigger Warnings: Helpful or Harmful? — A Brief History of Book Burnings — The Beautiful and the Banned: In Defence of Graphic Novels — and more…

FEATURES: Word Warrior: Alvin M. Schrader — Three Free Expression Organizations You Should Know — The Language and Stories of Reconciliation — Where to Draw the Line: Censorship and Self-Censorship in Canadian Newspaper Editorial Cartooning — Off Limits: Who Decides What Kids and Teens Get to Read? —…

“I love my freedom to read whatever I want.” That joyous phrase has been doing its sassy dance in my head since I first saw Franke James’s vibrant illustration for Freedom to Read Week 2015. And I can’t think of a better way to celebrate your freedom to read than…

Editorial This year’s Freedom to Read review marks the thirtieth anniversary of its publication and of Freedom to Read Week in Canada. It was 1984 when the Book and Periodical Council, through its Freedom of Expression Committee, first published this annual review to explore the freedom to…

“There are worse crimes than burning books,” said the Russian poet Joseph Brodsky. “One of them is not reading them.” Freedom to Read 2013 includes stories about both crimes.

Editorial The year 2011 was inspirational for proponents of free expression. A deep longing for democracy, human rights and equality drove people into the streets across the Muslim world and North America. Although they sometimes faced violent responses, ordinary people armed with powerful ideas toppled governments in…

Editorial From the Supreme Court to the streets of the G20 Summit protests, from the halls of residential schools to the Senate floor, this twenty-seventh edition of Freedom to Read covers the shifting landscape of censorship and free expression in Canada today. In Freedom to Read 2011,…