acton@ubc-ean.CDN (Donald Acton) (10/24/84)
Last week was supposedly banned books week in Canada. To honour this occasion the UBC bookstore had a display of books that had been banned in Canada and various other countries of the world. As one would guess books like Alexander Solzenytshin's (sp?) Cancer Ward, and the Gulag Archipeligo were well represented. However, the more disturbing facet of the display was the number of books banned in Canada. Books such as One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, Flowers for Allgernon, Lord of the Flies, The Grapes of Wrath and the Red Pony are currenly banned by various school boards of the country. One might be able to make a case, based on the local moral standards, for having a book removed from a required reading list but I don't see any reason for having the books banned from the local school libraries. This is just one more example of where those in "power" attempt to manipulate our thoughts and direction of thinking by limiting our access to information. As most of you would probably guessed our federal government is also active in this area. Unlike school boards they can effectively ban a book in the entire country by prohibiting its importation. The most recent example of this is the banning of the book The Greatest Hoax of the Twentieth Century which questions some of the facts and figures relating to the Holocaust. (I of course cannot verify this because the book is banned) However the book was not banned because the federal government passed an order in council banning it or because a judge ruled it to be hate literature. It was banned because a religious group (to my knowledge this group is not jewish) pressured Customs into seizing it. In my mind there can be no justification for Customs and hence the government having the power to ban a book in this manner. This implies that it is up to you to prove why you should be allowed to do something instead of the government having to justify why you shouldn't. So once again our rights and freedoms are being whittled away under our noses. Donald Acton acton@ubc-ean