Alberta school divisions complying with a provincial order have removed dozens of graphic novels from their shelves, from illustrated versions of literary classics to coming-of-age memoirs and dramatic retellings of mythology, access to information request results show.
Now boxed away in storage in some Edmonton and Calgary-area schools are graphic novel versions of Margaret Atwood’s A Handmaid’s Tale and George Orwell’s 1984 — both dystopian stories about government control.
Staff at every Alberta school had to review their library and classroom collections last fall when Alberta’s education minister ordered schools to remove any material containing any explicit depiction of a sexual act out of student access.
Most Alberta school divisions at first refused to reveal which materials staff had removed to comply with provincial rules.
Access to information requests filed separately by CBC News and Toronto Metropolitan University’s Centre for Free Expression (CFE) show that schools removed at least 166 titles, most of them graphic novels, from shelves.
A provincial Education ministry spokesperson told CBC the order protects kids from graphic imagery.
CFE director James Turk says the blanket restrictions on material available to all students, from as young as four to as old as 19 in Alberta, falsely assumes teenagers haven’t been exposed to graphic imagery on their cellphones or through other mediums.
“It’s a very puritanical way of dealing with young people and of infantilizing them,” Turk said in an interview. “These are real issues in the lives of most 13, 14, 15 year-olds. And it’s better they’re reading about and getting some sense of it.”
In January, CBC News filed six access to information requests — one to the provincial Ministry of Education, and one to each of the province’s five most populous school boards. The request asked for all information schools sent to the province to fulfil the ministerial order.
The province had demanded records last October from all provincially funded authorities, including public, Catholic, francophone, independent and charter schools.
Alberta Education has not yet provided any records in response to the access request, saying it has to consult with affected third parties first.
Edmonton Public, Edmonton Catholic, Rocky View schools and the Calgary Board of Education (CBE) provided lists. Calgary Catholic Schools says it did not remove any material.
In response to follow-up questions, school divisions said none of the material removed was found in schools that exclusively house elementary-age students.
Although many titles appeared on multiple lists, some divisions made conflicting judgment calls.
For example, CBE and Edmonton Public Schools removed different volumes of Neil Gaiman’s Sandman graphic novel series.
An anthology called, Be Gay, do comics! Queer history, memoir, and satire from The Nib, was removed from CBE schools but remains in the library of one Edmonton public high school.
After CBC News asked Edmonton Public Schools why their schools kept several books accessible that CBE had removed, a spokesperson said the division removed 16 more titles from student access, and shared a link to an updated list, now published on the school division’s website. All of the new additions are on CBE’s list of removed books.
Parkland School Division’s list of six removed titles is also publicly posted in a report to its school board.
Results from one of the requests included instructions from Alberta Education to schools about how to screen books and other material. The instructions said depictions of sex between animals in a nature video or publication was OK to keep, but any imagery showing sexual acts involving a “near-human character,” such as a fairy or an alien, would not meet the provincial standard.
Books on artists, philosophers, mythology removed
Independently, researchers with the Centre for Free Expression attempted to contact every Alberta public, Catholic and francophone school board.
CFE’s research found 23 of the province’s 61 school boards said they had not removed any material from student access, CFE Director Turk said.
Volunteers with CFE filed access to information requests to the remainder of the divisions. CFE was still receiving results at publication time, but have so far tallied 166 removed titles in a national database of book challenges.
The removed titles include two of Canadian poet Rupi Kaur’s books, a graphic retelling of the Bible’s Book of Genesis, a book about living with eating disorders and cartooning guidebooks.
Gone is a book about Andy Warhol’s art, coming-of-age memoirs of people discovering their gender identity and sexual orientation, and books about philosopher Albert Camus.
Several graphic novel series with dramatic or romantic plots were removed, such as the manga Saga and Black Bird.
Graphic novels that inspired or were based on movies or TV series such as the A Game of Thrones comics, The Walking Dead, Firefly, and V for Vendetta were also deemed afoul of the provincial order.
Portland, Ore., cartoonist Eric Shanower, whose work has been published by most major U.S. comic publishers and translated into multiple languages, was “taken aback” to find several Alberta school divisions had banished books from his Age of Bronze series, which is a meticulously researched series on the Trojan War.
He said the comic volumes are appropriate for readers aged 14 and older, and that this is the first time he is aware one of his publications has been banned.
In an interview, Shanower said sex is implied between characters — because they bear children who become relevant characters in the war — but he refrained from including graphic images because it was unnecessary, and he didn’t want his work categorized as pornographic.
He’s baffled by why schools removed the books.
“Either they don’t understand what the word ‘explicit’ means, or I draw so well that they imagine … something that’s not even there,” he said.
Literary order ‘demeaning’ to older students, says author
Turk, of CFE, said school book removals give Alberta the dubious distinction of accounting for nearly three-quarters of the known book challenges documented in 2025 at all Canadian libraries.
“It’s the most significant order banning books in the history of Canada. There’s never been anything like this,” Turk said.
Ira Wells, president of freedom of expression charity PEN Canada, and author of the book, On Banning Books, says Alberta’s order turns a blind eye to legal definitions of obscenity.
He said while Alberta Education Minister Demetrios Nicolaides points to isolated pages in books depicting a sex act or showing a sexual assault of a child, the law judges works as a whole.
Sex is not the focus of the books that Wells recognizes on the removed list, he said.
“In refusing to think about the purpose of the books and the message of the books, the Alberta government is embracing a very blunt form of censorship,” Wells said. “It’s demeaning to think that some of Alberta’s great high school students … they may be headed off to Ivy League colleges, to Oxford, to Cambridge, but they’re not mature enough to read a graphic novel of 1984.”
Calgary high school student Josephine Trigg, 17, whose Catholic school recently prevented her from reading a poem about sexual assault in a contest, said she’s in disbelief the government is limiting what students can read.
Trigg reviewed the lists of removed books and said it’s frustrating and counterproductive to remove books that speak to students’ interests.
“Let people have the freedom of choice of what they want to read and what they want to be exposed to,” she said. “And if that makes some people uncomfortable, just don’t read it.”
Nicolaides’ interest in reviewing books available to students came at the prompting of the members of two interest groups — Action4Canada, and Parents for Choice in Education (PCE).
PCE sent volunteers into school libraries to find copies of books the non-profit organization says contains scenes that are not appropriate for children. Some Alberta schools have students from kindergarten to grade 12.
Trigg says she does not think the motivation for the ministerial order was to protect children.
“If you remove education, you’re not or if you remove knowledge, you’re not protecting children,” she said. “Ultimately, that’s going to do more harm than good.”
Toni Samek, a scholar in residence for CFE and University of Alberta professor emeritus in library and information studies, says she’s disturbed to hear Alberta cabinet ministers say they intend to expand a crackdown on libraries.
Last month, both Premier Danielle Smith and Municipal Affairs Minister Dan Williams told reporters at the legislature they are contemplating new rules for 55 municipal libraries, mostly in smaller communities, that serve both a school and a municipality.
Williams wouldn’t give details, but says because the current ministerial order excludes those libraries, he wants to ensure children going there are protected.
Looking at the titles removed, Samek says it sends a dangerous message to people of colour, Indigenous people, women or anyone who wants to be a writer, illustrator, educator or librarian that their perspectives are unwelcome in the province.
Samek says the removed titles so far constitute a minute fraction of school divisions’ collection, suggesting that prevalence of graphic pictures is not a widespread problem.
Concerned parents happy to have challenge mechanism
Parents for Choice in Education executive director John Hilton-O’Brien sees it differently.
In an interview, he said education and political leaders did not take his group’s concerns about graphic images seriously at first, which is why they sent volunteers hunting for copies in schools.
He said it was concerning to hear that school staff found almost 170 titles that contain images he thinks minors shouldn’t see. He said the finding suggests the education minister took the correct action.
With tight budgets and a dearth of teacher librarians, school curation has allowed in books of “dubious use” that are possibly harmful, he said.
“If you are including graphic depictions of sexual behavior, that’s a concern, from our perspective. If you’re doing that in ways that encourage a child to picture themselves being engaged in the behavior . . . we’ve got a little problem with that,” he said.
Removing materials from minors’ access isn’t about freedom of expression, Hilton-O’Brien said, but ensures schools are presenting the best possible resources for students to learn from.
Insisting that graphic materials remain accessible tramples on the rights of parents who don’t want their children to see that content, he said.
The real success of the provincial rules, he said, is the requirement for schools to have a formal mechanism for community members to challenge books or other materials. School boards contacted for this story said they have either received one, or no challenges since the policies took effect.
In a statement, Nicolaides’ senior press secretary, Garrett Koehler, said the order protects kids from images of masturbation, sex toy use and child molestation. School divisions’ removal lists weren’t subject to the minister’s approval, he said.
“This isn’t censorship,” his statement said. “It’s a common‑sense standard to keep explicit sexual images out of school libraries, and we delivered exactly that.”
