Southern Manitoba libraries battle defunding attempts over sex-ed content in children's books

It's been a long year at the South Central Regional Library.

A push that began last summer to remove a few children's sexual education books from the southern Manitoba library system has since bubbled up into accusations its staff are pedophiles, as well as a campaign to defund the library — leaving some of its exhausted librarians considering quitting, the library's director says. 

"The far-reaching effects [are] not that visible to the public — you know, we still function and we still open doors," said Cathy Ching, who heads South Central Regional Library — a network of five libraries in southern Manitoba communities.

"My staff are tired, my council members are tired. Staff sometimes don't know who's going to walk in the door and give them a hard time."

Last fall, the library ruled it would not pull three kids' books from its shelves following complaints they were explicit and encouraged children to engage in sexual activity.

One of those books — It's Perfectly Normal: Changing Bodies, Growing Up, Sex, Gender, and Sexual Health by Robie H. Harris and Michael Emberley — was moved to the young adult section. The other two — What Makes A Baby and Sex is a Funny Word by Cory Silverberg and Fiona Smyth — stayed put.

But it didn't stop there, Ching said. Librarians started hearing about how they were "promoting pornography," and that "we as staff were child sexual groomers and pedophiles." A March library board meeting was forced to end early when people showed up with signs, she said.

Delegations also started presenting at council meetings across the seven municipalities that fund the library's branches in Altona, Manitou, Miami, Morden and Winkler, requesting they withhold that funding until the library reviews its policies around children's books containing what presenters described as sexually explicit materials and child pornography.

Ching said the library has already reviewed its policies — and there's no need for changes. 

In some communities, council agreed.

The Town of Altona rejected the delegation's request, saying council was confident the library took the initial book challenges seriously. The Municipality of Pembina, which includes the community of Manitou, also declined to defund the library, citing its value for residents.

But in the city of Winkler, Mayor Henry Siemens asked the library's board in a letter to adjust its policies to reconsider how books "that deal with issues around children and sex" are displayed, after council members became "alarmed at the graphic sexual act depictions and descriptions" in some of them.

The March 20 letter requested a response by later this month.

Siemens said council has no plans to consider defunding the library, which he called a valuable resource — but he wants a respectful dialogue that considers everyone's perspective.