Five Books Threatened by Bans in Canada
Book banning and censorship have been around for a long time. We may think it is a relic of a past time, but all you have to do is look at the many authors on Twitter and other social media platforms who’ve shared their experiences of having their books be excluded from libraries and bookstores for showcasing queer or BIPOC experiences.
In Canada, the history of banning and challenging books may be less prolific, but it very much exists. Books like The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood and Satanic Verses by Salman Rushdie have been challenged for depictions and mentions of violence, offensive language, and being in conflict with religious beliefs.
Here are five books that you may not have known faced calls to be banned in Canada for #BannedBooksWeek.
Underground to Canada by Barbara Smucker
The historical novel for young readers was first published in Canada in 1977 and is based partially on a true story. The book is set in the United States and Canada in the years leading up to the American Civil War, depicting the hard lives of slaves in the American South and the people who helped them escape to Canada via the Underground Railroad.
In 2002, a motion was introduced at the Tri-County District School Board in Nova Scotia that called for the removal of Underground To Canada, along with In the Heat of the Night by John Ball and To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee, as they raised objections to the depictions of Black people in anti-racist novels. The school board rejected this request.
The Wars by Timothy Findley
Published in 1977, the novel by Timothy Findley centers on Robert Ross, a sensitive nineteen-year-old Canadian officer who went to the First World War and found himself in the nightmare of trench warfare.
The novel was called “depraved” by parents in an Ontario School District and they demanded this novel be removed from all classrooms and the board’s optional curriculum. This means the book wasn’t a part of the official curriculum, but teachers could choose the book if they wanted.
According to a parent, “the philosophy of the sexualizing of human relationships seems to be a predominant theme in this book, even when small children are involved.” A parent claimed that even though they wanted the book banned from the board’s curriculum, they said it was not about censorship.
Such is my Beloved by Morley Callaghan
This book was first published in 1934 and is considered one of the great novels of the 1930s. Such Is My Beloved recounts the tragic story of two down-and-out prostitutes and a young priest who aspires to help improve their lives.
In 1972, two Christian ministers tried to get this novel removed from a high school in Huntsville, Ontario on the basis of the depiction of prostitution and the use of “strong language.”
Snow Falling on Cedars by David Guterson
This 1994 novel by David Guterson is set on the fictional San Piedro Island, off the coast of the state of Washington—a place so isolated that no one who lives there can afford to make enemies. In 1954, a local fisherman is found suspiciously drowned and a Japanese American named Kabuo Miyamoto is charged with his murder.
An anonymous letter of complaint compelled an Ontario School Board to remove this novel from its high school library shelves and from the syllabus of a Grade 11 English course on the basis of the sexual content in the story.
Antigone by Sophocles
Written in or before 441 BC, Antigone is an ancient Greek tragedy. The title character, Antigone, is the daughter of Oedipus, King of Thebes. The play tells the story of how Antigone gives her brother a proper burial in defiance of a tyrant’s edict.
In 2011, Chief Dwayne Antoine and members of the band council of the Poundmaker Cree Nation tried to ban a live performance of an adaptation of Antigone by an acting troupe on their reserve. The director, Deanne Kasokeo, believes that it was because one of the characters in her adaptation is a corrupt band chief, which offended the band council leadership.
The band council did not give an explanation for their decision to ban the performance. Ultimately, the troupe defied the ban and performed the play in a school on the reserve. The performance was seen by about 60 people.
Arjun Singh
is an emerging writer located in the Greater Toronto Area. He writes prose and screenplays and is currently hard at work on a novel, screenplay and a short story collection. Her is also an avid reader and has an ambitious goal of reading 60 books every year. Arjun was published in the Humber Literary Review's Spotlight edition in Spring 2022.