Remembrance Day book decision upsets former teacher
A P.E.I. woman is questioning a decision to prevent a group of young children visiting a public library from hearing stories about Remembrance Day.
Fran Albrecht went to the public library in Georgetown, east of Montague, about three weeks ago to pick up a book about Remembrance Day.
After speaking with the librarian, she discovered that a teacher from a local elementary school asked library staff to accommodate a little boy with connections to the Jehovah's Witnesses, who don't go to war.
Albrecht said they could hear about peacekeeping and peacemaking, but not Remembrance Day.
Albrecht, who was a teacher in P.E.I. for 16 years, finds that upsetting.
"Who could Remembrance Day possibly offend?" she told CBC News on Sunday. "There are so many freedoms we enjoy today because of the sacrifices that our veterans have made."
Albrecht's grandfather served in the Royal Navy in England. She was a member of the Canadian reserves and her husband was in the military.
"To deny a group of children for the sake of one, that's the thing that bothers me," she said.
Andrew Sprague, a spokesman for the Department of Tourism and Culture, which is in charge of the provincial library system, said this was an agreement between the teacher and the librarian, and not a library policy.
"We try to be as inclusive as possible with programming at all public libraries," Sprague said in an email to CBC.
"We were asked to put together a program that allowed all students in one class to participate while at the same time speaking to the spirit of Remembrance Day, so we were prepared to do stories about peace keeping and peace making, two important functions of our military."
"This was one program, on one day, at one library, for one group of very young children."
Sprague also pointed out that in the end the storytelling session didn't happen because the children didn't show up.
He said libraries across the province have books and programs related to Remembrance Day.
