“I got this email back, and it said, ‘As you’re probably aware, there’s been a lot going on in Saskatchewan over the past few months and we’ve been waiting for a directive,'” Remenda Swanson told The Canadian Press in an interview this week. She graduated from the high school in 1972 and now lives in Edmonton.

“It said, ‘We wish to thank you for your gracious offer. However, at this time, we are to follow the minister of education’s new mandate and must decline.'”

The author felt as if someone had kicked her in the gut, she said.

“So what’s the mandate? My book and me are banned?" she said.