In the wake of a government order that made waves around the world in 2025, the two largest school divisions in Alberta reported in early 2026 that they have started pulling books with sexually explicit images.
According to CTV, the Edmonton Public School Board reported that they have removed 34 titles while the Calgary Board of Education said that 44 titles have been removed from shelves in their schools. Sadly, even the Edmonton Catholic School Division reported that they had to remove six books.
Last summer, a Ministerial Order was introduced, requiring school boards to develop standards around what materials are deemed suitable for school libraries. This was the result of a consultation with the public, including 77,395 responses to an online survey.
As a result of the order, the Edmonton Public School Board identified over 200 titles as having to be pulled because of the government’s sexually explicit content policy, and their list included well-known, often-discussed classics like 1984 and Brave New World. This resulted in a public outcry that was covered by media outlets around the world. Premier Danielle Smith turned to X and Facebook to respond:
“I’m going to be more explicit than usual so there is no misunderstanding this policy:
1. Get graphic pornographic images out of school libraries.
2. Leave the classics on the shelves.
3. We all know the difference between the items in 1 and 2. Let’s not play any more games in implementing this policy for our kids.”
The provincial government did then amend its order to target only visual depictions of explicit sexual activity.
It has been known for many years now that graphic sexual content is being pushed in public school libraries, along with children’s sections of public libraries, in towns and cities across the country.
This has been going on even while our secular culture is grappling with the consequences of hypersexualization of youth. Even the Quebec government, known for pushing a radical secular worldview, recently published a report about “hypersexualization” that noted:
“the huge amount of sexual content that is publicly available generates a distorted understanding of gender relationships, beginning at a very early age.”
They added:
“hypersexualization can lead to precocious sexual behaviour among young people. Fascinated by the images they see on television and the Internet, they sometimes adopt behaviours borrowed from adult sexuality without having the maturity required to deal with the situations that may result.”
In spite of the obvious harm, Alberta is the only government in Canada that has had the courage to take action, and even their decision continues to allow sexually explicit content in the reach of the province’s vulnerable youth.
God is being loving to us in giving us the gift of sexuality, while placing safeguards around sex: a committed lifelong relationship of marriage between a man and a woman. As a fence around a swimming pool allows a family to enjoy the pool safely, so God’s safeguards around sex allow sex to be a blessing, first for married couples, but indirectly for the flourishing of children and all society.
Top photo supplied by the Alberta Government and used with permission.
