Annals of Book Burning

Toronto-area Catholic school board bans Pullman fantasy trilogy reports the CBC:

At a board meeting Tuesday evening, the trustees of the Halton District Catholic School Board voted to ban the title [The Golden Compass] as well as the remaining two books in atheist author Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials trilogy: The Subtle Knife and The Amber Spyglass.

It’s remarkable to me that such things can still go on, especially given that, although Catholic in name, the Halton District Catholic School Board is completely funded by the public. Kind of makes you wish we had some sort of over-arching law that protected our fundamental freedoms from book banners like this. Oh, wait, we do.

Comments

It's okay...relax's picture
It's okay...relax on December 22, 2007 - 16:32 Permalink

Does what’s being done (book destruction) matter more than who’s (Church group) doing it?

Anyone?

Chuck McKinnon's picture
Chuck McKinnon on December 23, 2007 - 05:18 Permalink

You also have the CIC taking Maclean’s to various Human Rights Commissions for publishing excerpts from Mark Steyn’s book, America Alone.

Charter? What charter?

At least the Catholic school board is only banning the book from circulating within its own schools (though I still find it an odious overreaction). The CIC is trying to ban Steyn’s views from public discourse.

oliver's picture
oliver on December 23, 2007 - 09:47 Permalink

I agree, but having read (and loved) the books, I’d also call this a legitimate case of self-defense.

oliver's picture
oliver on December 23, 2007 - 20:23 Permalink

Let’s make clear: Book “burning” was just metaphor or hyperbole, right? We’re talking about officials prohibiting their libraries from lending out these books and just perhaps policies of confiscating and delivering to a child’s parents any of these books that school officers discover in his or her possession. Sure it’s already a bad place to be on the slippery slope, but we’re not talking about a “Bonfire of the Vanities” here.

Kevin's picture
Kevin on December 31, 2007 - 21:38 Permalink

Given the odd entry in Yellow Pages, why hasn’t the phone book been banned by now?

On a more serious and interesting note, I recently read that Pierre Trudeau regularly sought, in writing, *permission* to read certain books which were banned by the Catholic church. The intertesting part of this is that this was while he was a law student at Harvard (miles from Catholicism) and (if my memory serves) the priest he petitioned was a fervernt supporter of certain Nazis including “Duce” Benito Mussolini. He came a long way…