Virtual Bonfires of the New Print Inessentials

"[We are seeking leaders who divulge their ethnicity] use their power, privilege and social identity to challenge and disrupt inequities. [Candidates must support the practice of] responsive pedagogy and differentiated instruction that leads to equitable outcomes for Black, African and Caribbean, Indigenous, Special Education and racialized students, marginalized by systemic barriers."

Peel District School Board, 2021 principal and vice-principal promotion package

"Ontario is committed to ensuring that the addition of new books better reflects the rich diversity of our communities."

"[My government is committed to libraries adding books that better reflect cultural diversity, but] it is offensive, illogical and counterintuitive to remove books from years past that educate students on Canada's history, antisemitism or celebrated literary classics."

"[I have asked the Peel District School Board to] immediately end [the] practice [of removing library books simply because they were published before 2008]." 

Ontario Education Minister Stephen Lecce

"This year, I came into my school library and there are rows and rows of empty shelves with absolutely no books."

"[A school librarian told me that] if the shelves look emptier right now, it's because we have to remove all books published prior to 2008."

"I think that authors who wrote about Japanese internment camps are going to be erased and the entire events that went on historically for Japanese Canadians are going to be removed. That worries me a lot."

"No one asked for our opinions. I feel that taking away books without anyone's knowledge is considered censorship."

Reina Takata, Grade 10 student of Japanese origins

High school students in Peel Region are expressing concern about a new equity-based process that has led some schools to remove thousands of library books published before 2008.  CBC

"[The school board] works to ensure that the books available in our school libraries are culturally responsive, relevant, inclusive, and reflective of the diversity of our school communities and the broader society."

Peel District (just outside Toronto) School Board

Dianne Lawson, a member of Libraries not Landfills, says teachers told her The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank and The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle were removed from their school libraries as part of the PDSB weeding process. (Nicole Brockbank/CBC)

Last spring, the Peel District School Board issued a memorandum to its school librarians to remove books from the school library shelves that predate 2008 and since then books that are not deemed to be "inclusive and culturally responsive" have been weeded out. Leading an advocacy group comprised of teachers, parents, students and school staff to protest against the process that weeds out fiction and non-fiction books published prior to 2008, while assessing them through an equity lens. as nonsensical.

The number of books at the Erindale Secondary School in Mississauga has been reduced by fully half, according to a student at the school, Reina Takata. It worried her, she said, to see the removal of books essential to fully comprehending important periods in history. According to Tom Ellard of the group Libraries not Landfills, thousands of books, including The Diary of Ann Frank and other classics such as the Harry Potter series were removed from the library shelves of several schools.

Guidelines issued by the Peel Board, Ellard explained, appear to direct librarians to follow a three-step process; the first appearing to place a 15-year-publication limit on books in a collection. As well, books are to be assessed for their physical condition, and a review undertaken of their circulation data. Second and third steeps in the weeding guidelines are for librarians to remove books with misinformation, are misleading, or reinforce racist content -- or information that is not gender-affirming.

 

Members of Libraries Not Landfills say they received this photo from staff of books that were weeded from a PDSB library. (Submitted by Tom Ellard)

 

Members of his group, said Ellard, agree that addressing issues of equity and supporting marginalized voices in Peel libraries are important, but the decision to remove books because of their publication date is arbitrary and concerning. An Ontario Education Ministry directive to undertake a comprehensive audit of all books to ensure collections are "inclusive and culturally responsive, relevant and reflective of students and the Board's broader school communities" evidently led to the new weeding guidelines.

Grade 10 student Reina Takata took this photo of the bookshelves in her Mississauga high school's library in her first week back to school this fall. Takata and others are concerned about a seemingly inconsistent approach to a new equity-based book weeding process implemented by the Peel District School Board last spring. (Reina Takata)