EDMONTON — Alberta Premier Danielle Smith says her government is rewriting a ministerial order directing school divisions to ban books containing sexually explicit content to ensure classic books stay on library shelves.
Smith says the order is being changed so it only targets books containing images of sexual content.
The government's initial order, issued last month, covered books with images, illustrations, audio and written passages with sexually explicit content.
"It's images that we're concerned about, graphic images," Smith said Tuesday at an unrelated news conference in Medicine Hat, southeast of Calgary.
"We were hoping that the school boards would be able to identify those on their own and work with us to try to make sure that pornographic images are not being shown to young children."
The revision comes after Edmonton's public school division put together a list of more than 200 books to remove from its libraries to comply with the initial order.
The list includes Margaret Atwood's "The Handmaid's Tale," Maya Angelou's "I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings," and "Brave New World" by Aldous Huxley.
Dozens more books were set to be inaccessible to students in kindergarten through Grade 9, including George Orwell's "Nineteen Eighty-Four" and F. Scott Fitzgerald's "The Great Gatsby."
Smith accused the division Tuesday of purposely misunderstanding the government's order.
"We are not trying to remove classics of literature," Smith said. "What we are trying to remove is graphic images that young children should not be having a look at.
"What I would like for the school boards to say is: 'We agree! Children shouldn't see pornographic images. We'll work with you on that.' And that's what I hope the spirit going forward will be."
Hours before Smith's press conference, an email from Alberta's education minister instructed school divisions to pause efforts to comply with the order until further notice.
Demetrios Nicolaides said later in a statement the list from Edmonton Public Schools prompted the government to make changes, which would be made "immediately."
His office did not confirm when the revised order would be issued.
The initial order directed schools to remove books with sexually explicit content — for students in all grades — by the end of September. Those in Grade 10 and higher would have access to books with non-explicit sexual content.
Schools were also tasked with implementing clear policies by the new year on how the directive would be maintained.
Other divisions were expected to come up with similar book removal lists as Edmonton Public Schools, though multiple divisions said they stopped work on complying with the order because of the email from Nicolaides.
A spokesperson for the Calgary Board of Education, the city's public school division, said its review of more than 500,000 titles has been paused.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 2, 2025.
Jack Farrell and Lisa Johnson, The Canadian Press
