What's at stake?
What's at stake when voices are silenced, civil discourse erodes and access to information is narrowed? How are challenges to intellectual freedom shaping and impacting our way of life? How can we protect free thought and ideas?
Freedom of expression and information are being threatened in Canada and worldwide. Now is the time to have open, meaningful and respectful dialogue and debate about what's at stake.
This spring, we continued these critical conversations with events, civil forums and installations, inviting you to challenge your perspectives, engage with new ideas, learn from one another and – most importantly – join the conversation.
Events and civil forums are part of our On Civil Society programming and generously funded in part by the Toronto Public Library Foundation.
Past events and civil forums
We have heard from global activists, warrior librarians, big tech whistleblowers, human rights leaders and others who are defending intellectual freedom in the face of war, legal harassment, misinformation and censorship. Watch recordings of our 2023 and 2024 seasons:
- Racing to Go Viral | Ben Smith & Elamin Abdelmahmoud
- Inside WIRED and the Future of Digital News | Katie Drummond & Anita Li
- Chasing Rainbows: 2SLGBTQ+ in Library Collections
- Generation of Lost Causes
- Who's Watching Big Tech?
- I'll Burn That Bridge When I Get To It
- A Prisoner's Right to Information
- Warrior Librarians of Ukraine
- Opposition Denied
- When Critical Voices Are Silenced
- Free People Read Freely – If They’re Allowed
- Libraries as Battlegrounds
Reflections from the City Librarian
A message from Vickery Bowles about the importance of our new series and how libraries are uniquely positioned to host and facilitate these conversations.
Installations
Experience installations that explore what's at stake when books are challenged or banned, and libraries are forced to limit their access to information, ideas and diversity of thought.
The Book Sanctuary Collection
These 50 adult, teen and children's books from across our collections represent titles that have been challenged, censored or removed from a public library or school in North America. Explore the collection to learn why these books were challenged.
Third floor, North York Central Library
Fourth floor, Toronto Reference Library
What is intellectual freedom?
According to the American Library Association, intellectual freedom is the right of every individual to both seek and receive information from all points of view without restriction. It provides for free access to all expressions of ideas through which any and all sides of a question, cause or movement may be explored.
Additional resources
Learn how we're protecting and defending intellectual freedom across our collections, programs and spaces.