Opposing sides met at Stuart Park, Kelowna, carrying transphobic signs or messages of Pride and acceptance.

(GABRIELLE ADAMS / iNFOnews.ca)

In the past year or so, the far right-wing group Action4Canada has made numerous headlines, mostly for its efforts to elect its members to school boards, then for harassment of school board trustees and staff.

But getting far fewer headlines were its attempts to remove certain books from school libraries in the North Okanagan and Central Okanagan School District libraries.

On May 11, 2022, the organization published a letter addressed to the School District 23 Board. The letter outlined serious accusations about sexually explicit material in school libraries.

“Children ages from 5 years old up to 17 years old at the schools mentioned below have been or are at risk of being exposed to books containing sexual references, sexual activity, sexual material, and books showing a person who is engaged in or is depicted as engaged in explicit sexual activity,” it said in the letter.

It included examples of eight different books, with titles including Kobabe Mais’ ‘Gender Queer’, Alison Bechdel’s ‘Fun Home’, George M Johnson’s ‘All Boys aren’t Blue’ and Mady G and JR Zucherberg’s ‘A Quick and Easy Guide to Queer and Trans Identities’.

Notably, the School District Libraries also stock books such as Haruki Murakami’s ‘Norwegian Wood’, Colleen Hoover’s ‘It Ends With Us’, and Vladimir Nabokov’s ‘Lolita’, amongst many others, that contain detailed straight sexual encounters and mature themes.

These books are not mentioned by Action4Canada. Instead, its list predominantly focuses on queer and LGBTQ+ narratives.

“I understand that resources are to be inclusive and suitable based on diverse social considerations. Nevertheless, resources are to be age appropriate, and within the boundary of the rules of law,” the organization wrote.

In the letter, Action4Canada advised the School Board to remove the books and put them under review with a school librarian.

School District 23 Superintendent, Kevin Kaardal, told iNFOnews.ca that all school materials are rigorously vetted.

“We continually review the collections in our library, that's done annually and in an ongoing way by our teacher librarians and our sexual health educators," Kaardal said.

Wayne Broughton, a father of transgender children as well as a School Trustee for the Central Okanagan School Board, told iNFOnews.ca that these kinds of accusations are often red herrings.

“They try to find particular books which are often only intended for certain uses, such as, for instance, parents who want to take their kids out of the sexual health education program and educate them at home,” he said.

Action4Canada’s book campaign is based on misinformation, Broughton said.

“They're pretending that this is somehow being shown to kids at an inappropriate age, which it's not. In fact, some of them have never even been taken out of the library before,” he said.

So far, Action4Canada followers have not been satisfied with the school district’s line of reasoning and protests have continued to take place throughout the Central Okanagan. The organization has elevated social media campaigns on the subject.

Barred from protesting at schools directly, on May 31, 2023, Action4Canada advocates confronted parents who were sitting in their vehicles, waiting to pick up their children near Chute Lake Elementary School.

The protesters came up to them, making accusations about "pornographic" library materials while specifically targeting gay and trans families.

READ MORE: Kelowna schools being targeted by gay/trans bashing protesters

“They're claiming that children are being sexualized. They're claiming that there are groomers and pedophiles at schools… It’s awful stuff. Total lies. I've been called names like that,” Broughton said.

Quite the contrary, sexual health education in schools doesn't focus on these subjects at all. It predominantly focuses on consent, Broughton said.

“(Most of sexual health education is) making sure that little kids know that they do not have to allow adults to touch them in a certain way. And they can go tell somebody if they're concerned about that or if somebody's touching them,” he said. “And then to make sure that older kids know that when they're getting involved in relationships with each other that they have to be based on consent.”

LGBTQ+ content is rarely used by teachers or shown to students, Broughton said.

“The actual LGBTQ content that people might be concerned about in those classes is really quite small. I mean, I asked my kid, how much does this even come up at school? And he says, hardly ever,” he said.

“This is such a small thing. They're blowing it out of proportion. It's not a big thing that they're trying to push LGBTQ content,” he said. “What's happening at schools is trying to make sure that LGBTQ kids feel safe. That they can be themselves.”

Broughton said he sympathizes with parents who are becoming concerned because of Action4Canada’s misinformation.

“The stuff that they're saying about books or about sexualization is all totally unfounded,” he said. “I think there may be some room for empathy with parents who maybe have been misinformed about what's happening at schools and so they're concerned... I think there's some room for conversation there, but I don't have time for Action4Canada.”

Dr Theresa Rogers, from the UBC faculty of education, told iNFOnews.ca that Action4Canada’s book banning campaign serves a dual function of promoting conservative views while simultaneously devaluing the LGBTQ+ community.

“Whatever curriculum they (teachers) choose to teach, a single parent can say, 'I don't want my child reading that book.' That's fair,” Rogers said. “But I don't know that we should allow special interest groups that have a particular agenda to dictate what... children can read and can't read in school. I mean, that wouldn't be part of how our democracy functions.”

Book banning campaigns are nothing new, Rogers said, as she pointed to a similar campaign launched in Surrey, BC in the 1990s against ‘Heather has Two Mommies’ by Lesléa Newman, a picture book depicting lesbian parents.

“This tension has been historically going on for a very long time,” she said. “I think the debate is healthy. But… I don't think we should ban books.”

Literature containing adult and mature themes have been a standard part of school curriculums for a long time.

“It is not a new phenomenon at all. It's been going on for decades and longer,” Rogers said. “I remember reading ‘Lady Chatterley's Lover’ when I was 16 and I don't think I was ruined by it. I think it was part of my education. It was a beautiful novel and it's a fantastic work of literature. But it also has a very realistic portrayal of an affair.”

According to Rogers, there is a necessary discussion to be had about sex, one which should be mediated by adults and professionals.

“Kids learn at a relatively early age that there is this thing called sex. And do you want them to have healthy conversations in schools, in health education and guided by teachers and also at home, obviously, with parents?” she said. “Or do you want them to get their information from other sources? That's something to think about because they're getting it one way or another.”

To contact a reporter for this story, email Georgina Whitehouse or call 250-864-7494 or email the editor. You can also submit photos, videos or news tips to the newsroom and be entered to win a monthly prize draw.

We welcome your comments and opinions on our stories but play nice. We won't censor or delete comments unless they contain off-topic statements or links, unnecessary vulgarity, false facts, spam or obviously fake profiles. If you have any concerns about what you see in comments, email the editor in the link above. SUBSCRIBE to our awesome newsletter here.

News from © iNFOnews, 2023