Culture minister condemns US candidate's burning of Quebec author's book

Quebec Culture Minister Mathieu Lacombe is blaming an up-and-coming Republican US lawmaker for burning a book by a local author.

A video released Tuesday by Missouri's Republican secretary of state candidate shows him taking a torch to library books he uses to “groom” children.

Among the books burned by candidate Valentina Gómez was Naked: Your Average Sex Encyclopedia, an English translation of Tout nu by Quebec writer Miriam Dagouzan Bernier and illustrator Cécile Gariepy.

The book is described as an inclusive guide to sexuality for teenagers.

On Thursday, Lacombe told reporters in Quebec City that the book burning will not take place until 2024.

“Banning books – I think it sounds like an 'old priest from the 1900s,'” Lacombe told reporters at the legislature.

“It's not acceptable, we can be for the books or we can be against it, but burning the books … we're in 2024.”

When I am Secretary of State, I will ????PAY for all the books that educate, indoctrinate, and sexualize our children? MAGA. America First????????? pic.twitter.com/m8waKi3yhP

— Valentina Gomez (@ValentinaForSOS) February 6, 2024

It was later unanimously approved by Quebec's National Assembly and denounced censorship and reiterated its support for freedom of expression, freedom of expression and the free flow of ideas.

Quebec children's author and illustrator Elisa Gravel was also named in the movement, which is the author and illustrator of “Naked”.

Gravel has been accused by the Center for Israel and Jewish Affairs of using anti-Semitic myths for his public statements about the Israel-Hamas war.

In a social media post on Wednesday, Gravel said his posts were not anti-Semitic and that his criticism was of the Israeli government and its agenda.

A Montreal newspaper reported Wednesday that the city's Jewish public library will no longer promote its books and will instead move them from open shelves to closed collections accessible via catalog.

“I am against all forms of racism and discrimination, including anti-Semitism,” Gravel wrote, adding that criticizing the state of Israel is not anti-Semitic.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published on February 8, 2024.