IDEAS for a Better Canada: Can libraries help remind Canadians what democracy is all about?

April 22, 2025

In late March 2025, the Burlington Public Library hosted a discussion about democracy, intellectual freedom, and the essential role of libraries in our society as part of CBC Radio’s IDEAS for a Better Canada series.

Watch the episode on YouTube or listen through CBC On Demand.

Your library is open (and believes in democracy)

Public libraries across Canada are a forum dedicated to intellectual freedom and democracy. Yet they have become a target in the culture wars of the United States — and in Canada, too.

No matter where one sits on the political spectrum, it’s an urgent conversation to have. Libraries exist to give everyone access to a wide variety of content: even when those books, events and materials may offend others.

At the Burlington, Ont., central public library, a recent memoir by infectious disease expert Dr. Anthony Fauci, who promoted public health efforts and vaccinations in the U.S. during the COVID-19 pandemic, is available. The library also carries a recent book by Robert F. Kennedy Jr. which argues that questions the efficacy of vaccines, and that Anthony Fauci was part of a global conspiracy.

Librarians themselves are increasingly having to persuade a growing number of skeptics that all ideas belong on their shelves.

IDEAS heard from experts and the audience alike about the role of libraries as upholders of intellectual freedom, and challenges to our freedom to read — and what can be done to “future-proof” it.

Guests in this episode:

• Lita Barrie is the chief executive officer of the Burlington Public Library.
• Meg Uttangi Matsos is the director of service design and innovation at Burlington Public Library.
• Ira Wells is a journalist and academic, and the author of On Book Banning: Or, How the New Censorship Consensus Trivializes Art and Undermines Democracy.

Pictured (left to right): Lita Barrie (Chief Executive Officer, Burlington Public Library), Sabreena Delhon (Chief Executive Officer, The Samara Centre for Democracy), Meg Uttangi Matsos (Director, Service Design & Innovation, Burlington Public Library), Nahlah Ayed (Host, CBC’s IDEAS), and Ira Wells (Professor, University of Toronto, critic & author). [Credit: Burlington Public Library]