Happy Freedom to R#%$ Week!

As this is Freedom to Read Week, I found it particularly ironic when I learned of the recent decision of the owner of the Ottawa Comic Book Shoppe owner to pull all works by Orson Scott Card off his shelves on the grounds that Card is against gay marriage (to the point of having served on committees aiming to abolish it). One wonders how much would even be left in most bookstores and libraries if we were to pull all the works by authors who subscribed to at least one politically incorrect viewpoint! Remember all the kerfuffle over the mayor's announcement(soon reversed) that the new city archives building would be named in honour of former Ottawa mayor Charlotte Whitton?

Admittedly, this is a slightly different situation. The Comic Book Shoppe is a private enterprise. The owner is free to stock and offer for sale whatever selection of material he pleases, assuming that the material or its sale is not in itself illegal. And selecting certain items as being likely of interest to one's customers will inevitably involve rejecting others. If we were talking about a public or school library or some other institution supported to a great extent by public funds, then wholesale elimination of one well-known (and generally well-regarded) author like that becomes far less defensible. As a few people I know have said in the tag-line to their signatures (no doubt a quote from somewhere but I don't know where), "Our library has something in it to offend everyone!"

It will be interesting to see whether the decision brings the store-owner more friends or enemies. He's located in the heart of the "gaybourhood" but I think he may find that while his customers nearly all support gay marriage, they may prove equally vociferous in their support of freedom to read!