Alberta bans explicit sex books in schools, limits who reads about kissing, hugging
Global News
Students in Grade 9 and younger will not be allowed to read about puberty, menstruation and breastfeeding but religious texts, such as the Bible, will be allowed on the shelves.
Alberta’s education minister says sexually explicit content must be gone from school library shelves as of Oct. 1, but says the announcement is not about book banning.
Demetrios Nicolaides says the move is about putting rules in place for schools that until now have had no standard for selecting age-appropriate books for its libraries.
“This was never about erasing particular narratives from school libraries,” Nicolaides told a news conference in Calgary Thursday.
As part of the announcement, Nicolaides issued a list of specific sex acts that can’t be explicitly described in library books alongside new rules for what students can read.
Students in Grade 10 and above will be allowed to read about kissing, hugging and handholding as they are not deemed explicitly sexual in nature.
Students in Grade 9 and younger will not be allowed to read about puberty, menstruation and breastfeeding.
Religious texts, such as the Bible, will be allowed on the shelves.
School boards must review library materials, and school officials will be tasked with supervising students to make sure they are reading appropriate material.
The agency says more than 22,000 people have been removed from the country in the last 12 months, and nearly 30,000 removals were "in progress" as of Oct. 31.
A problem with the signalling system caused a service interruption this morning on Montreal's light-rail network.
An Ontario lawyer accused by American authorities of advising a Canadian Olympian-turned-alleged-cocaine kingpin has had his licence to practice law suspended.
The FIFA draw ceremony will mark the first time Prime Minister Mark Carney, U.S. President Donald Trump and Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum will be in the same room.
A new report finds anglophones face higher unemployment and lower wages in Quebec; gaps that researchers say carry major economic consequences.
Critics are questioning the solidity of Saab's pitch to deliver 10,000 jobs in Canada if it decides to set up shop here to assemble Gripen fighter jets.
The girl’s disappearance underscores long-standing concerns about the ease with which a parent can take a child to another country without the other parent’s knowledge or consent.
Asbestos cleanup, tight work windows and other TTC delays have slowed the build out of 5G cellular service in Toronto's subway system.
Alberta's UCP government is changing the rules to make it easier for citizens to force a referendum on issues such as the prospect of the province leaving Confederation.
An at-home DNA test given as a birthday gift solved an 80-year family mystery by revealing that a man in Quebec and a man in the Netherlands were long-lost brothers.
Lina Vargas was on the board for almost two years and told Global News that accountability and transparency are fundamental rights for all community members.
Industry Minister Melanie Joly told the House of Commons committee on international trade the move breaches federal contracts tied to manufacturing in Brampton and Windsor, Ont.
A targeted home invasion and kidnapping led to a gunpoint standoff with police and an overnight chase across Toronto. Two suspects remain at large, investigators say.