Intellectual freedom in Canada: “No Bad Bunnies for YOU, kid! Just “How Good Little Girls Learn to Say Correct Things”

Franklin Carter offers a link to an interesting article on people trying to get books banned from libraries, usually on the theory that children will be corrupted by them.

These people give me a pain in the ear because, if they are the parents, why don’t they choose their own child’s reading material? If not, how do they know that other people’s children will be offended? And why should they make the decision, rather than those children’s own parents?

The reality is that if no one takes the book out, after a while, it will be withdrawn from circulation without comment. If we think that a book teaches kids really bad values, we should advise others discreetly, not create a big public uproar that provides free advertising and enables both author and publisher to parade as martyrs.

Thanks to Franklin Carter at the Book and Periodical Council's Freedom of Expression Committee.

Next: Intellectual freedom in Canada: Go to jail to protect your sources? Maybe you will have to.