The Canadian Children’s Book Centre is calling on the Government of Alberta to rescind a ministerial order that restricts books with content the province believes is sexually explicit from being included in K-12 school libraries.

“Students deserve access to age-relevant reading materials, including young adult novels that explore issues of sex, sexuality, consent, and healthy relationships,” said the CCBC in the press release. “While a certain book might not be a good fit for one student, it can be life-affirming for another. This sweeping and vague ministerial order risks the removal of many diverse and inclusive books and disproportionately targets 2SLGBTQIA+ stories.”

The five-page order, which was presented on July 4 by Education and Childcare Minister Demetrios Nicolaides, could see new rules coming into effect this fall. Under Ministerial Order 030/2025, school libraries must not include materials with sexually explicit content, and students in Grade 9 or below will no longer be able to access books containing “non-explicit sexual content,” defined in the order as reference to a sex act that is not detailed or clear. Students in Grade 10 and above may access materials with “non-explicit sexual content” as long as it is “developmentally appropriate for the student accessing the material.”

“We also express our concern that this ministerial order risks infringing on the rights and freedoms guaranteed to students in Canada,” said the CCBC. “The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, to which Canada is a signatory, is clear: ‘The child shall have the right to freedom of expression; this right shall include freedom to seek, receive and impart information and ideas of all kinds, regardless of frontiers, either orally, in writing or in print, in the form of art, or through any other media of the child’s choice.’”

According to the CCBC, titles by Canadian authors Abdi Nazemian, David A. Robertson, Mariko Tamaki, Richard Van Camp, and Xiran Jay Zhao would be among those that fall under the order’s jurisdiction.

The Alberta Teachers’ Association has decried the ministerial order saying it “will have a chilling effect on our schools.”

The Writers’ Guild of Alberta (WGA) has also called on the Alberta government to rescind the order noting that it overrides “the expertise of librarians and educators, limiting their ability to do their jobs in the best interests of their students and communities.” In its statement, the WGA called the ministerial order “not only unnecessary but its vague wording risks opening the door to further restrictions and more book bans.”

In May, prior to the ministerial announcement, The Association of Canadian Publishers (ACP), the Canadian Publishers’ Council (CPC), and the Literary Press Group of Canada (LPG) as well as Canadian School Libraries (CSL) had expressed deep concern about the public consultation process of the Alberta government’s “Ensuring Age-Appropriate Books in School Libraries” initiative.

The CCBC, a national literary organization, was founded in 1976. A guiding belief of the organization is that “equity, diversity, and inclusion must always be at the core of Canadian children’s literature.”