Premier Danielle Smith reportedly seen saying oops/sorry ! to Margaret Atwood author of The Handmaid’s Tale

Disclaimer: Premier Smith did not say oops/sorry. Court Painter made it up!

Alberta pauses book ban after schools remove The Handmaid’s Tale, 1984 and other classics

The province says it will review its controversial policy after outcry over removing beloved novels from classrooms

Among those books to be banned were dystopian classics such as The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood, 1984 by George Orwell and Brave New World by Aldous Huxley. The Color Purple by Alice Walker and I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou were also targeted, as were Jaws by Peter Benchley and It by Stephen King.

The Alberta government is set to release September 5 its revised school library book ban.

The new version would come three days after the government directed school boards to pause their work in complying with the original ministerial order.

School boards initially had until the end of the month to remove books containing what the province deemed sexually explicit content, including images, illustrations and written descriptions.

That led Edmonton Public Schools to compile a list of over 200 books it needed to remove, including literary classics such as Margaret Atwood’s “The Handmaid’s Tale.”

Premier Danielle Smith has said the Edmonton school division was being heavy handed and derided it as “vicious compliance” and purposely misunderstood the intent of the order.

She said the government’s main concern was images of sexual content and that the policy was being revised so classics like Atwood’s would stay in schools.

News Sources: The Guardian,Canadian Press

By the way, Premier Smith has a book recommendation ; Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand

“I didn’t read Ayn Rand’s Atlas Shrugged until I was 22. Maybe we should make it mandatory reading in high school, because it is a pretty influential book and I think it does really articulate how important it is that that we value our entrepreneurs and we value a free-enterprise economy.” Moreover, she added, it is “absolutely appropriate for school children of that age.”