Winkler councillor on region’s library board to ‘exert influence’

City council in a southern Manitoba city at the centre of a book-banning controversy passed a resolution last week that they hope will allow the city to “exert influence” over what books should be available or visible to children on library shelves in the community.

On July 11, a resolution was passed during the city of Winkler’s regular council meeting in response to what city council says are ongoing and “grave concerns” among councillors, because some believe that “sexually explicit” material is being made available in children’s sections at the South Central Regional Library (SCRL), a facility that serves Winkler and several surrounding communities.

The resolution calls for the city to appoint two members to the library’s board of directors, with one from council and  the other a citizen appointee.

Winkler city councillor Don Fehr was appointed to the library board last week and said they are still in the process of selecting their citizen appointee.

Concerns about content at SCRL were first raised earlier this year when a delegation in April asked council to stop funding the library until certain books that touch on issues of sexuality and sexual and gender identity and LGBTQ issues be removed from areas geared towards children and youth readers.

Council says they are not considering halting any funding to the library, however,  after reviewing some content they felt they should be able to exert some control over where books and other materials are placed and visible.

According to the resolution, the city of Winkler “has grave concerns around the availability of graphically sexually explicit books in the children’s section of the Winkler Library.”

And according to the resolution, the city had asked previously that the SCRL board of directors create a policy that would see “sexually graphic” content moved from the children’s section to another section of the library, but as of last week remained concerned about some content’s placement.

The resolution says that the city of Winkler now “instructs these appointed board members to exert influence as members of the SCRL Board of Directors, to create policy whereby graphically sexually explicit books be moved from the children’s section to another section of the library as appropriate, so that children will not stumble across them, but they remain available to parents who wish to use them as an educational resource.”

During Tuesday’s council meeting, Winkler Mayor Henry Siemens said he does not believe the resolution should be seen as an attempt at banning books.

“We’re not looking to ban books,” Siemens claimed. “We’re asking that those very graphically explicit books … that there be a policy created around that.

“We as council, are not going to create that policy, but we do feel strongly that a policy specifically towards this needs to be created, and these individuals on that board will be tasked to exert influence where they can.”

SCRL director of library services and board member Cathy Ching on Monday said board members would not be making any comments until the resolution is reviewed.

“As for the resolution, we have not officially received it, but will be reviewing it closely,” Ching said.

In a previous interview with the Winnipeg Sun on April 13, Ching said that the ongoing controversy was putting extra stress and pressure on library workers that she said are simply trying to do their jobs.

“We have had people phone and tell long-time staff how disgusting they are, and that they are pornographers and promoting child-grooming,” she said.

At that time Ching said that, “books that have been challenged have been peer-reviewed, and are in many, many libraries across the country.”

Talk of banning books has become a growing issue in other southern Manitoba communities recently, as in the last few months, both the Brandon School Division, and the Prairie Rose School Division have also faced calls to restrict books being made available to children and youth at schools and in school libraries.

This story was originally published in The Winnipeg Sun. It is republished under a Creative Commons license as part of the Local Journalism Initiative.