Education minister cares more about four books than the teachers strike
By Lethbridge Herald on July 26, 2025.
Editor,
The controversy around so-called “sexually explicit” 2SLGBTQ+ books in Alberta’s school libraries is back.
Education Minister Demetrios Nicolaides claimed that he couldn’t ban books from school libraries, but the other day he signed a ministerial order doing just that.
After tallying the results from his ministry’s comical online survey (did you notice the spelling mistakes?), Nicolaides feels empowered to force understaffed and underfunded schools to seek-and-destroy anything deemed “explicit” on their bookshelves.
Will schools receive extra funding or resources to perform this work? Of course not. However, this order will gratify the right wing lobby group Action4Canada, who appear to have instigated this controversy. They enjoy the Minister’s ear in a way that the Alberta Teachers’ Association does not.
The issue began when four books were scrutinized as possibly inappropriate for Alberta’s school libraries. Isn’t it funny how just four books have managed to make Minister Nicolaides so hot and bothered? Yet in the face of pressing problems, like a potential teachers’ strike and the need for a measles preparedness plan, he doesn’t break a sweat.
Jacob Bachinger
Lethbridge
9-8
Especially when it’s no secret that most of the Students have cell phones that can supply them with all the pornography they want. Apparently the Education Minister isn’t smart enough to understand that, is he?
Good move by the Minister another step in the right direction. As a parent, thank you!