December 20, 2007
Press Release for Immediate Release
WRITERS DECRY CENSORSHIP OF CONTROVERSIAL BOOK
The Writers’ Union of Canada is claiming that the decision by Ontario’s Halton Catholic School Board to remove Philip Pullman’s books, including The Golden Compass, from its schools is an outrageous form of knee-jerk censorship.
“By prohibiting its students from reading what is little more than a children’s fantasy, the school board is displaying a form of censorship which dates back to the days when the Roman Catholic Church published long lists of books that adherents were not allowed to read,” said Susan Swan, chair of the Writers Union. “It’s very disturbing and shows a lack of enlightenment by the board.”
Reacting to a parent complaint, the board originally removed the book for review purposes. Despite a recommendation by the review committee that the book should remain on the school shelves, the board’s trustees overrode that recommendation and ordered the books removed. The ban even extended to other books by Pullman that were not subject to a complaint.
“The role of schools is to open children’s minds to the many things which delight them, not to hide them away behind antiquated dogma,” added Swan. “It’s all too reminiscent of the challenges which confronted the Harry Potter series, except that those school boards had the sense to reject the complaints.”
Now a major motion picture, The Golden Compass depicts a young girl in a parallel world who is confronted with a battle between good and evil. Conservative Catholic organizations in the United States, claiming that Pullman’s books are contrary to what they call “Catholic values,” have urged a boycott of the movie, which has nonetheless become a box-office hit.
“When organizations ban books, they are effectively shooting themselves in the foot,” added Ron Brown, chair of the Union’s Rights and Freedoms Committee. “Such action simply draws more attention to the material they are trying to hide, and defeats their original purpose in banning them. This has become as disturbing as the decision in 2006 by the Toronto District School Board to remove Deborah Ellis’ book, Three Wishes again, despite a recommendation by their review committee that the book be retained,” Brown added. That book, which included actual interviews with Israeli and Palestinian children, was removed following concerted lobbying by the Canadian Jewish Congress.
The Writers’ Union of Canada is our country’s national organization representing professional authors of books. Founded in 1973, the Union is dedicated to fostering writing in Canada, and promoting the rights, freedoms, and economic well being of all writers. For more information, please visit www.writersunion.ca.
