Alberta’s Book Bans, the Commercialization of Nationalism, the Pope and AI

Monday, July 7, 2025

This week from The Walrus:

Alberta’s Book Ban Is a Blatant Act of Cultural Vandalism

The push to sanitize school collections erases what literature is for: knowledge, discovery, the freedom to think

BY IRA WELLS

A pair of disembodied covers a girl's eyes as she tries to read.

A major flaw in Alberta’s approach is its use of isolated images ripped from graphic novels to imply schools are awash in pornography. For nearly a century, free speech jurisprudence has emphasized that obscenity be judged in the context of an entire work—its structure, intent, and overall effect on the reader—and not by individual sentences or images. (That was the core of judge John Woolsey’s reasoning in his landmark 1933 decision lifting the ban on James Joyce’s Ulysses.) Those quick to denounce works by Mike Curato or Alison Bechdel should apply the same standard: read the whole book, not just the most salacious pages.

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Canadian flag that says 'Made in Canada' with a barcode to indicate that it's for sale.

Is This Canada, or Just a Commercial for It?

National branding campaigns are crowding out harder truths about the country we live in

BY DAVID MOSCROP

A worker wearing protective gear working in a factory.

There Was a Time Canada Really Did Build, Baby, Build

Lessons from when we skipped the consultants and produced the materials that won a war

BY ERIN O’TOOLE

Pope Leo XIV pays tribute to the tomb of Pope Francis.

The Catholic Case against Artificial Intelligence

Pope Leo XIV takes aim at thinking machines

BY RANDY BOYAGODA

Today’s Quiz Question

It appears Alberta is entering the book‐banning business. In late May, the province sent out a survey inviting Albertans to provide feedback on what is “acceptable for school library collections.” What does writer and University of Toronto literature professor Ira Wells note as a major flaw in their survey approach?

Yes, I know the answer

Someone holds a ziploc bag full of ashes labelled 'gran' overlooking the sea.

Why More North Americans Are Skipping the Funeral Home

The high cost of dying may be pushing the living toward cheaper, greener, stranger options

BY ELLEN HIMELFARB

Illustration of two orcas in a circular motion, nose to tail (similar to the yin and yang symbol) outlined by a watercolour circle with shades of pink, blue, and purple, set against a black background.

The Two Captive Orcas Who Can Nearly Taste Freedom

The clock is ticking to rehome whales that have never lived outside of Marineland

BY JESSICA TAYLOR PRICE

A black-and-white photo of a large ship.

How I Solved the Century‐Old Mystery of a Miraculous Shipwreck Survivor

In a disaster worse than the Titanic, it was believed a young man swam over six kilometres to safety. It didn’t add up

BY EVE LAZARUS

Photo illustration shows three hands in three colours holding one another.

The Key to Understanding Adult Siblings: Your In‐Laws

Iryn Tushabe’s debut novel, about two sisters bonding in the face of tragedy, compelled me to look into my own relationships

BY ANUBHA MOMIN

In this episode of What Happened Next, host Nathan Whitlock is joined by Natalie Zina Walschots. Natalie is an author, game designer, and journalist whose books include two poetry collections, DOOM: Love Poems for Supervillains and Thumbscrews. Her most recent book is the novel Hench, published by HarperCollins in 2021. That book was a finalist on Canada Reads and was nominated for a Locus Award for Best First Novel. Natalie and Nathan talk about the multiple times she has written, then scrapped, the sequel to Hench, about finally cracking the novel while working in a borrowed camper in small‐town Nova Scotia, and about the Canadian book that would have turned her very chill experience with Canada Reads into a “medieval joust.”

Listen now

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Jennifer Hollett
Executive Director, The Walrus

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