Article content Last week, Halifax Pride boycotted Halifax Public Library over a refusal to pull a book from its shelves. The book — Irreversible Damage: The Transgender Craze Seducing Our Daughters by Abigail Shrier — is considered by many to be transphobic and rife with misinformation. The boycott is part of a disturbing pattern of Canadian pride festivals penalizing library systems for defending freedom of expression. In 2019, Meghan Murphy, a writer frequently accused of transphobia, was invited to speak at a third party event hosted at the Toronto Public Library. In response, Pride Toronto published an open letter melodramatically stating that “there will be consequences to our relationship for this betrayal.” That same year, Vancouver Pride banned its local library system from the parade for allowing Murphy to book space for an event.