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Keith Gerein: Restrictions on Alberta's libraries solves an imaginary problem, while risking some real ones

When a government imposes something like Bill 28, it eats away at the principle of intellectual freedom by raising the question of what process will be used to determine which materials have to go behind the counter. Who ultimately gets to decide what is art and what is smut?

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Another month, another column from me about Alberta’s UCP government finding new ways to interfere with municipalities, this time to rein in, of all things, public libraries.

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Yes, dear reader, I’m tired of it, too.

Frankly, after multiple columns about UCP meddling in photo radar, bike lanes, codes of conduct, municipal elections, regional planning, police governance and so on, repeating myself offers no satisfaction. And yet I also feel like I wouldn’t be doing my job if I just stop acknowledging a pattern of political control-mongering coming from the legislature.

As such, I propose a deal to Premier Danielle Smith and her government. You stop insinuating yourself unnecessarily into municipal matters and I’ll find something else to write about. Sound good?

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