Canadian School Board Eliminates All Books Before 2008

In one of the most egregious acts of deliberate grooming, the Peel District School Board in Ontario, has removed all books that were not published within the last 15 years. Meaning that any books published before 2008 were removed. They also removed any books that they deemed to have “racist content,” stereotypes, or didn’t affirm students identities.” Even books such as Harry Potter and The Hunger Games were removed.

The district refers to this mind-numbing purge of history as equitable weeding. The group of fascists that sit on this board get to deem what they think is offensive and then remove it. They claim that removing these outdated books will limit “the harm caused by outdated and oppressive resources that remain in circulation.”

In an internal memo the board directed the staff to “affirm identities” stating that using “anti-racist, anti-oppressive, and anti-colonial texts is crucial.”

There are several steps involved in this decimation of the past, which includes in many cases not just removing the books but throwing them away. Step number one was referred to as the “equitable curation cycle.” This included removing any damaged, outdated, and uncirculated books. The group then moved on to step two which allowed the board to conduct what in their minds was an “anti-racist and inclusive audit.” The misguided attempt here was to ensure that books didn’t “perpetuate or reinforce racist content, stereotypes or promote deficit-thinking.”

Step three encompassed again, what the board determined would “intentionally affirm students’ identities, such as “Black, Indigenous, 2SLGBTQ+, Muslim, Latinx, Jewish, and South Asian identities.”

In defense of the book culling PDSB released the following statement:

“Books published prior to 2008 that are damaged, inaccurate, or do not have strong circulation data (are not being checked out by students) are removed.”

The statement went on to say that if damaged books have strong circulation the board says they can be replaced regardless of publication date, and older titles can stay in the collection if they are:

“accurate, serve the curriculum, align with board initiatives and are responsive to student interest and engagement.”

“The Peel District School Board works to ensure that the books available in our school libraries are culturally responsive, relevant, inclusive, and reflective of the diversity of our school communities and the broader society,” 

Following widespread media attention,  Ontario’s Education Minister Stephen Lecce wrote a letter to the school board instructing them to immediately cease the practice.

“Ontario is committed to ensuring that the addition of new books better reflects the rich diversity of our communities. It is offensive, illogical and counterintuitive to remove books from years past that educate students on Canada’s history, antisemitism, or celebrated literary classics.”

In a memo received and reviewed by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC), this entire book purge apparently began from a something called Directive 18 from the Minister of Education. The directive was based upon a Ministry review in 2020 that documented widespread cases of systematic discrimination within PDSB.

Directive 18 instructs the board to complete a diversity audit of schools, including libraries.

“The Board shall evaluate books, media and all other resources currently in use for teaching and learning English, History and Social Sciences for the purpose of utilizing resources that are inclusive and culturally responsive, relevant and reflective of students, and the Board’s broader school communities.”

The equitable weeding process begins with teachers and librarians focusing on books published before 2008. The librarians then go through each book and consider the acronym MUSTIE as a criteria guideline for which books can stay and which must go.  MUSTIE stands for:

• Misleading – information may be factually inaccurate or obsolete.               
• Unpleasant – refers to the physical condition of the book, may require replacement.
• Superseded – A book has been overtaken by a new edition or a more current resource. 
• Trivial – of no discernible literary or scientific merit; poorly written or presented.                
• Irrelevant – doesn’t meet the needs and interests of the library’s community.                
• Elsewhere – the book or the material in it may be better obtained from other sources. 

When the time comes, the books that are weeded are disposed of because they are causing harm, either as a health hazard because of the condition of the book or because “they are not inclusive, culturally responsive, relevant or accurate.”

For those reasons, the documents say the books cannot be donated, as “they are not suitable for any learners.” 

Removing history is fine. Replacing it with perverse smut, that’s OK too. However, the PDSB want to make sure that the discarded history doesn’t anger any tree huggers. So, a PDSB spokesperson said the board supports its schools “in the disposal of books in a responsible manner by following Peel Region’s recycling guidelines.” Peel Region allows for the recycling of book paper, as long as hard covers and any other plastics are removed first and put in the garbage. 

It’s been reported that in some of the district schools, over half of the books have been removed.

“Those who don’t learn from history are doomed to repeat it.”

Those who attempt to destroy history and replace it with fallacy, are eternally damned.