I keep forgetting to post about this! But I think it's only fair to mention, even if I'm late about it, that my School Board Trustee, Lois Burke-Gaffney, seems like a good egg.

To recap, the Calgary Catholic School Board (which is a public school board, not private) suddenly pulled The Golden Compass from library shelves in December to "review" it.
http://www.nationalpost.com/news/story.html?id=146646

I got very very angry. My family and I have a long history with the schools here, and though I've certainly disagreed with the Board before, I didn't think they could be that reactionary. I wrote my Trustee, and called and left voicemail too.

Early in January I got a form letter thanking me for my concern and explaining that they hadn't "banned" the book but had withdrawn it to "review" it. That miffed me, since I was quite aware of the "review" spin when I wrote my letter and had specifically addressed it. On the other hand, I was pleased to see that the public response was big enough that they'd had to draft a form letter.

Later in January I got a personal phone call from my trustee, Burke-Gaffney. Right away she apologised for not responding to me earlier and that she agreed with me - withdrawing the book was a mistake - "silly" in fact - and not just because it got negative publicity. The book went back on the shelves (I think she mentioned this happened with a change in some senior board roles) and they're developing a study guide.

I mentioned I was pleasantly surprised by her phone call since I thought the stiff form letter was going to be all the response I got. She dismissed the letter as coming from "Downtown".

We ended the conversation with mutual admiration.

But really, the most important response out of the events was that the book is back, and I think they regret ever flirting with censorship of this kind.