Babak Abbasi Anna Ainsworth EAC150 27 November 2013 Book Censorship in Canada Canada is a country that is known for

having freedom of expression. However, this freedom of expression comes with certain limits and rules that the citizens of Canada must follow in order to meet the governmental standards. When it comes to a subject such as literature, not everyone is pleased with what is being published to the media. Therefore, certain books, such as To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, are censored due to the fact that they contain material that is considered inappropriate by a group of people. By examining the novel To Kill a Mockingbird, it may be argued that its racist dialogues, offensive language and references to rape are what caused it to become censored. When a book contains multiple inappropriate sections such as sexual dialogues, blasphemous dialogues, incidents of gory violence, and/or racist dialogues, a number of people become unhappy about it. A portion of these people will report the book to the staff members of the library that they got the book from in order to try and get the book removed from their book collection to prevent others from reading it. This act is called challenging. When a book is challenged, it means that a certain person or group has been trying to get it to be banned but has not yet succeeded and the book remains unbanned. When a book is challenged for containing inappropriate material, its removal from places such as libraries is not enforced by law. Furthermore, access to the book is only restricted to certain age groups or in certain places if the

staff members of the places determine that the book should not belong there. Usually, the people who are in charge of the books in places, such as libraries, schools, or bookstores, carefully examine the contents of challenged books before adding them to their collection of books. This is to make sure that the contents of the book are appropriate for the age groups that have access to the book collection of that place. For example, a book that has been challenged for gory violence would probably not be allowed in the library of an elementary school, but instead, would more likely be allowed in a high school. It also depends on the severity of the inappropriate contents. If the book has a lot of controversial material and is not appropriate for any age group, then that book has a higher chance of becoming banned on a nationwide level. Banning books has not been, and is currently not, a common practice in Canada. The reason for why the government of Canada does not normally ban books is because of the fact that the authorities believe that the people should have the power to choose and decide which books they would like to read and which books they would like to avoid. An umbrella organization by the name of Book and Periodical Council is involved in the writing, editing, publishing, manufacturing, distributing, selling, and lending of books and periodical publications in Canada. The BPC organization monitors book censorship in Canada and organizes the Freedom to Read week, an annual event that spreads awareness of book censorship and celebrates the freedom of expression in Canada. Because of the large number of Canadians who support the Freedom to Read week and believe that the freedom to read is a fundamental human right that should not be taken away by the government, the challenges to most books that contain controversial material become unsuccessful and the challenged books remain unbanned by the government.

An example of a well-known book that has been challenged in Canada for its inappropriate content is To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee. This novel was first published in July 11, 1960 and has become a classic of modern literature. Despite the meaningful messages that it contains and its significance that made it receive the 1961 Pulitzer Prizer, many people have challenged this book in Canada. The reason for why this book has been challenged is because it contains racist dialogues, references to rape, and offensive language. Due to this, many libraries have removed this book from their collections. Furthermore, many school

districts have not approved this book to be used as a part of the classroom curriculums due to the fact that certain quotes and passages in the book may offend some readers. Racist words such as nigger are used multiple times throughout the novel. Earlier on in the story, during a conversation between the narrator and her friends, the narrator says, "Don't you believe a word he says [] thats nigger-talk. (Lee 37) Later on in the story, Miss Stephanie informs Jem that "Mr. Radley shot at a Negro in his collard patch" (Lee 54) and she continues, Shot in the air. Scared him pale, though. Says if anybody sees a white nigger around [...] be it dog, nigger, or-Jem Finch! (Lee 54) These quotes show the intense racism that was black people were facing during the time in America. The word nigger is used a total of 48 times in the book. Therefore, a great number of people started challenging the book because they believed that children should not have to read this racist word repeatedly in the novel. This is, however, not the only word in the novel that is considered offensive to the readers. Words such as whore and damn are used quite often in the novel. For example, on page 84, Francis tells Atticus that "[grandma] called [him] a whore-lady and jumped on [him]!" (Lee 84) This quote not only shows the use of inappropriate words, but also shows violence to children and references to prostitution. Later on in the story, when Judge Taylor asks Tom

Robinson to tell the jury what Mr. Ewell said to his daughter, Tom replies, He says you goddamn whore, I'll kill ya. (Lee 194) Here, Tom talks about how Mr. Ewell called his daughter a prostitute and threatened to kill her. These are only a few of the many quotes that show the use of offensive words and references to inappropriate subjects such as prostitution and murder. On page 138, when the narrator and Jem are fighting, the narrator says, "You damn morphodite, I'll kill you! (Lee 138) This quote not only shows the word damn being used but also shows the use of the word morphodite which is an altered version of the word hermaphrodite. This word is considered offensive to some people and therefore, made the book even more controversial. The word whore is used 4 times in the novel and the word damn is used a total of 9 times. Due to the vulgar language that is frequently used throughout the novel, this book has been restricted from being studied in certain public schools, such as St. Edumnd Campion Secondary School.

It is clear that book censorship exists even in countries with freedom of expression, like Canada. The main purpose of book censorship is to prevent people from reading a certain book because of its content. However, because most Canadians believe that it should be up to the readers to choose what they would like to read, most challenged books tend to remain unbanned in Canada. This means that their restriction depends on the authorities that run the building that contains the book. After examining a challenged novel titled To Kill a Mockingbird, it has been proven that its racist dialogues, offensive language and references to rape are what caused the book to become challenged within the country. Despite the inappropriate and controversial material that certain challenged books in Canada might contain, some of them have been extremely successful and have often given very good messages to the readers.

Works Cited

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Carefoote, Pearce. "Censorship in Canada." McMaster University. McMaster University, n.d. Web. 29 Nov. 2013. <http://hpcanpub.mcmaster.ca/case-study/censorship-canada>.

Forsloff, Carol. "To Kill a Mockingbird' Banned at Canadian Catholic High School." Digital Journal: A Global Digital Media Network. Digital Journal, 24 Aug. 2009. Web. 29 Nov. 2013. <http://digitaljournal.com/article/278201>.

Javed, Noor. "Complaint prompts school to kill 'Mockingbird'." thestar.com. Toronto Star Newspapers Ltd., 12 Aug. 2009. Web. 29 Nov. 2013. <http://www.thestar.com/life/parent/2009/08/12/complaint_prompts_school_to_kill_mockingbir d.html>.

Lee, Harper. To Kill a Mockingbird. 1960. Reprint. Philadelphia: Time Warner Inc., 1982. Print.

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N.p "About Banned & Challenged Books." American Library Association. American Library Association, 10 Dec. 2012. Web. 29 Nov. 2013. <http://www.ala.org/bbooks/about>.

Peat, Don. "Ontario school kills 'Mockingbird'." Canoe leading Canadian portal. Canoe Inc., 13 Aug. 2009. Web. 29 Nov. 2013. <http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/Canada/2009/08/13/10446311sun.html>.

Saretsky, Kristine. "Book censorship in Canada." Calgary Journal Community Newspaper. The Calgary Journal, 3 Sept. 2013. Web. 29 Nov. 2013. <http://www.calgaryjournal.ca/index.php/news/1804-book-censorship>.