There is currently no expectation that Alberta schools refrain from giving kids access to books containing depictions of child molestation and point-of-view oral sex. That is why on Monday, Education Minister Demetrios Nicolaides announced he’d be working over the summer to craft a new policy on age-appropriate content for schools, slated to take effect in September.
Public consultations for the new standards are
, and the ministry has indicated that the ensuing policy could come as early as “late spring, 2025.”
Which all means that Nicolaides will now have to spend his summer facing performative outrage from progressives suddenly concerned about free expression, and who insinuate at every turn that common-sense content curation is the same thing as fascist book banning. Kudos to him.
What prompted this new project was the education ministry’s
of some clearly over-the-line materials in
Alberta schools. Among these was the infamous autobiographical graphic novel
Gender Queer
by Maia Kobabe, which
from the collections of at least 56 U.S. school districts. The contents are so graphic that a concerned adult in Florida
removed from a school board meeting for trying to read some pages into the record.
Not only does that book promote gender ideology — the idea of a gender spectrum completely detached from biological sex — it contains graphic depictions of sex and masturbation in child-friendly colours. It covers porn (the main character is an avid user), masturbation (vibrators and dildos are discussed with excitement) and kinks (the main character claims to be an autoandrophile — that is, someone who is aroused at the thought of being a male).
At one point, the main character is told — and I’m sorry to repeat this here, but the point that this is inappropriate for children needs to be made — “I can’t wait to have your c–k in my mouth — I’m going to give you the blow job of your life. Then I want you inside me.” She later dons a strap-on and receives oral sex in a panel that graces the viewer with multiple angles. The entire book is
, and isn’t entirely about sex, but that’s not the point. The problem is that some pages contain graphic sexual content — to the point where even the author
it for children.
And yet,
Gender Queer
was found on the library shelves of some Calgary schools with students in Grades K-9, according to the ministry, as well as high schools of both major cities. Garrett Koehler, spokesperson for the education department, shared a photo with me showing the book on the same shelf as
Naruto
, a popular manga series for children; it was taken at an elementary school.
Other finds included
Fun Home
by Allison Bechdel, which
masturbation and, some pages later, oral sex (though at least in black-and-white);
Flamer
by Mike Curato, which contained depictions of masturbation and masturbation games; and
Blankets
by Craig Thompson, which depicted the main character’s younger brother, with bare legs and buttocks visible, being molested by their father. These were found in some schools with students in the K-9 range.
Now, it’s true that many kids will come across this kind of stuff in the wild. Some find porn online. Some watch R-rated movies. Some learn new words for increasingly niche sex acts through music. Some, sadly, become victims of abuse. But that’s not a reason to hand them materials containing these things at a school.
In a similar vein, we don’t expect school libraries to introduce minors to the concept of body shots, or inform them how to use a bong or snort lines of cocaine. They can learn about drugs, sex and sexual predators without the use of comic books.
And for parents who don’t mind, or even want to allow their children access to graphic novels with adult themes, they’ll always be free to grant it through a public library or bookstore.
Some progressive voices, nonetheless, are unhappy, making a connection between reasonable safeguards and irrational social conservatism.
“Make no mistake — this actually IS about banning books — and Smith’s administration is not the first in history to target and ban books seen as contrary to its ideology in order to control public discourse,” wrote Edmonton NDP MLA Lori Sigurdson on X. Some members of the media took the same line: Sean Amato of CityNews
to the banning of books; the Globe and Mail’s
spoke of consultations on “which books should be banned from school libraries.”
The Alberta Teachers’ Association went as far as
the province was targeting LGBT books because the announcement “specifically singled out 2SLGBTQIA+ materials.” A CUPE representative
that concern.
Their concern is political censorship, and if the Alberta government was angling to take its new policy to the extreme, I’d be concerned about that, too. But that’s not the indication: the minister’s priority appears to be overt, explicit, graphic sexual content that borders on the pornographic. The fact that his examples of over-the-line material depicted largely same-sex encounters is beside the point. Besides, it’s not like he’s making
to the curriculum or diversity-and-inclusion-related library book
, which is a common tactic of the left.
This could very well be the second time that Albertan officials have handled a matter of extreme cultural contention with the balance and nuance it deserves. The first was last year, when the province set out its rules limiting sex changes for teens and the facilitation of social transitions at school.
Now, in the case of school books, Nicolaides isn’t talking about binding orders, but general baselines. It’s looking optimistic: since the announcement, Calgary and Edmonton schools have
the books highlighted by the minister from their shelves. If that’s an indication for things to come, he won’t need to take a hard-handed approach.
National Post
