BOOKS: Freedom to Read Week

This week, Feb. 26th to March 4th is Freedom to Read Week. Here's a quote from the web site:

"Freedom to read can never be taken for granted. Even in Canada, a free country by world standards, books and magazines are banned at the border. Books are removed from the shelves in Canadian libraries, schools and bookstores every day. Free speech on the Internet is under attack. Few of these stories make headlines, but they affect the right of Canadians to decide for themselves what they choose to read."

I can't find a single event in Ottawa to celebrate this week, which I think is extremely unfortunate. (If anyone knows of any, please let me know.) Even the public library, which has a link to the FtR site on its website hasn't planned any events. I am truly surprised - and dismayed.

Anyways, happy Freedom to Read Week.

Check out the link below for events in your area.

http://www.freedomtoread.ca/

[Edit: I emailed Lisa from Octopus Books, a great activist book store here in Ottawa, and she said that this type of event is not well-attended and so they decided not to run an event this year. They do however have all kinds of Freedom to Read stuff in their store this month, including a list of banned books, a sample of "read banned books" bumper stickers and buttons, and a selection of books that "we think are important and would have been challenged for similar content as other books on the banned book list", so head to Octopus if you need your fix! In the meantime, check out their indy news feed here and their event listings here for good stuff if you're interested. Too bad Ottawans don't support stuff like this. It's a shame. NB - I also called and emailed the library but haven't heard from them.]