EDMONTON — Alberta Premier Danielle Smith says her government is rewriting an order directing school divisions to ban books with sexually explicit content to ensure classic books stay on library shelves.
The order is being changed, Smith says, to only target books containing sexual images.
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 it planned to remove from 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, as well as books by Alice Munro, Ayn Rand, Margaret Laurence and Stephen King.
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 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."
The inclusion of Atwood's celebrated novel prompted the author to condemn Smith online over the weekend. Atwood penned a satirical short story that she said could replace her most famous work in Alberta school libraries.
The satire is about two 17-year-olds who "grew up and married each other, and produced five perfect children without ever having sex."
In a blog post Tuesday, Atwood questioned why Alberta laid the blame on the Edmonton school board, referencing Smith's accusation that the list of banned books was "vicious compliance."
"Compliance with an order the government itself issued and that school boards were compelled to implement? Whatever do they mean?" asked Atwood.
Smith said Tuesday that Atwood played no role in the decision to change the order and encouraged the author to look at the four graphic novels the province cited in May as the reason for the policy.
"It includes oral sex. It includes threesomes. It includes a child having their pants pulled down by an adult," said Smith. "That is what we are trying to remove from the school libraries."
Earlier Tuesday, Alberta's education minister instructed school divisions in an email 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 change the order, and that it would happen "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.
Nicolaides had said the policy was spurred by four graphic novels with illustrations of sexual acts — most with LGBTQ+ themes — found in some school libraries.
The four books, including "Gender Queer" by Maia Kobabe and Alison Bechdel's "Fun Home," were on the Edmonton Public Schools list of books to be removed.
Other divisions were expected to come up with similar lists, though multiple divisions said they stopped those efforts 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 was paused.
Julie Kusiek, the Edmonton Public Schools board chair, said the division's trustees believe the government revising the order is a response to concerns by parents, families and educators.
"Our board remains committed to keeping lines of communication open with the minister as we continue to work collaboratively with families and the government in support of student learning," Kusiek said.
Opposition NDP Leader Naheed Nenshi said if the United Conservative Party premier wasn't so adversarial, the issue of removing age-inappropriate books from school libraries would have been solved without much trouble.
"The UCP decided to try to ignite a culture war, and it's backfired on them exceptionally badly," Nenshi said.
"Instead of just saying, 'Hey, we found a couple of troubling comic books with some troubling images, let's take those off of shelves,' they wrote a ministerial order.
"Then this is what happened. People actually complied with the order."
Jason Schilling, president of Alberta's teacher union, agreed and called on the province to back down completely.
"We urge the government to stop playing games with teachers and students and put a full stop to policing school library materials."
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 2, 2025.
-- With files from Matthew Scace in Medicine Hat, Alta.
Jack Farrell and Lisa Johnson, The Canadian Press
