Overview

• Education Minister Demetrios Nicolaides said the updated order targets visual depictions of sexual acts in school materials, allowing written descriptions to remain.
• School boards must submit to the minister by the end of October the titles they intend to remove, with student access to listed items ending Jan. 5, 2026.
• The rules now apply to all grades and to any part of a school, replacing earlier grade-level distinctions and extending beyond libraries to classrooms.
• The government says it will not publicize the submitted lists, a shift that follows controversy over an Edmonton draft list of roughly 200 books including works by Margaret Atwood and Maya Angelou.
• Critics warn the new focus could still sweep up queer-themed graphic novels such as Gender Queer and Fun Home, even as classic literature remains on shelves; the order also expands coverage to “school literary materials” and drops a requirement to digitally catalogue teachers’ classroom collections.