Calgary Freedom to Read Week Committee is the recipient of the 2012 Award for the Advancement of Intellectual Freedom in Canada

The Canadian Library Association has announced that the Calgary Freedom to Read Week Committee has been chosen as winner of the 2012 Award for the Advancement of Intellectual Freedom in Canada for its continuous and varied efforts over 18 years to promote and defend intellectual freedom issues in the City of Calgary, Alberta. The Calgary Freedom to Read Week Committee, an ad hoc partnership that has consistently included citizens, school board representatives, and public library staff members, came together in 1994 when a Member of the Legislative Assembly of Alberta (MLA) demanded that John Steinbeck's classic novel Of Mice and Men be removed from schools in Alberta, a book that the MLA admitted he had not read. The Committee made a stand against the removal of the book, and has remained active in the pursuit of intellectual freedom in the community ever since