“We continue to engage with the local indigenous community members who raised the initial concern about this book before sharing any more information publicly,” the statement said.
It also said DDSB did not ignore or refused to engage in dialogue with publisher Penguin Random House or the author, David A. Robertson, who has twice won the Governor General’s Literary Award, and was 2021 Canadian Children’s Author of the Year.
Junk Mail
DDSB reissued a statement in response to the claims:
“The DDSB IT Department has had the chance to investigate this issue following our initial search which did not turn up anything from Penguin Random House. The e-mails sent from Penguin Random House were caught in our mail filter to protect against phishing attacks, as it appears that Penguin Random House does not currently have a valid SPF Record for their e-mail accounts, which is a standard level of e-mail protection. Therefore, the e-mails sent by Penguin Random House were not received by any of the individuals to whom they were addressed.
“The assertion by Penguin Random House that the DDSB has ‘refused to engage in dialogue’ is not true. The DDSB has previously engaged with Forest of Reading on this topic and would have with Penguin Random House if the e-mails were received. We look forward to responding to Penguin Random House once the appropriate staff have had a chance to review their e-mails. We are not aware of Penguin Random House using any other methods, such as phone to contact the DDSB, which would have solved this communication problem.”
DDSB said it will be providing an update on this topic next week.
Shocked, says author
Meanwhile author, David A. Robertson, said he was “shocked” by DDSB pulling The Great Bear from its libraries.
“We need to be putting more books by indigenous authors on the shelves, not taking them out. This is an insult to teachers, librarians, and children,” he said in an earlier tweet.