Freedom to Read Week is an annual event that encourages Canadians to think about and reaffirm their commitment to intellectual freedom, which is guaranteed them under the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

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.


Freedom to Read Week is about the freedom of expression.  The freedom to read what one wants.  The freedom to fight against censorship.

Most Canadians probably don't even realize that on their own shelves sit challenged books. During Freedom to Read Week, your mission is to release challenged books all across Canada — on park benches, in coffee shops and in schools — as a way to mimic how challenged books are passed around, and to spread the word about challenged and banned books in Canada.

The Freedom of Expression Committee invites you to find a title you care about from our list of challenged literature and release it into your community. Perhaps your book will be picked up by someone in your community or maybe even by a foreign exchange student who will release it in another country — that's the beauty of this project and our hope for your freed book.
Interested? Here's how to get started...

1. Find a title from your own bookshelf that appears on our list of Challenged Books. Here are just a few examples of books that have been challenged in Canada:
   
   
   • Margaret Laurence, The Diviners
   • J.D. Salinger, Catcher in the Rye
   • Rosamund Elwin, Asha's Mums
   • Alice Munro, Lives of Girls and Women
   • Elizabeth Laird, A Little Piece of Ground
   • Mordecai Richler, The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz
   • John Steinbeck, Of Mice and Men
   • Harper Lee, To Kill a Mockingbird
   • J.K. Rowling, Harry Potter
   • Mark Twain, Huckleberry Finn
   • Margaret Atwood, The Handmaid's Tale
   • more books...
   
   
2. Tag it with our handy book label.
3. Follow the link to BookCrossing.com and register the book.
4. Release the book into your community.
5. Log on to the BookCrossing website often to see who finds your book and what they think about freedom of expression.

We "challenge" you to do it!

Some of the most controversial books in history are now regarded as classics. The Bible and works by Shakespeare are among those that have been banned over the past two thousand years. Here is a selective timeline of book bannings, burnings, and other censorship activities.