In a February 8 letter from the Canadian Jewish Council (which was also sent to every English-language school district in the province), the group asked OLA to withdraw Three Wishes from the shortlist. Characterizing 17 quotes from the interviewees as “demoniz[ing] both sides as murderous and irrational,” Frank Bialystok, chair of CJC’s Ontario Community Relations Committee, wrote, “Schools should be a place where sensitive issues are dealt with in a sensitive fashion.”
“In our eyes, the book is perfectly good,” OLA Executive Director Larry Moore told CBC/Radio-Canada February 28 after committee members revisited their reasons for selecting the book. The next day, the Writers Union of Canada called on the York District School Board to reverse its decision to remove Three Wishes from its Silver Birch reading list. Students must be 4th–6th graders to vote for best fiction or nonfiction Silver Birch book, and become eligible by reading at least five selections from that category on OLA’s shortlist.
Meanwhile, the Toronto District School Board barred 4th and 5th graders from borrowing the title unless they have parental approval and was weighing whether to allow 6th graders unfettered access. Three Wishes remained on school library shelves across the province in early March, and Ontario education minister Gerard Kennedy has said that the decision is a local one. “This isn’t about censorship or restriction. This is really about what is the right level to handle the concepts that are in the book,” he told the March 1 Toronto Star.
Posted March 3, 2006.