L’affaire du cachalot noir, Tison-Ardent by Gervais Pomerleau
Author: Gervais Pomerleau
Publication date: 1994
Publisher: D’ici et D’ailleurs
L’affaire du cachalot noir Synopsis:
Published in the spring of 1994, L’affaire du cachalot noir is a young adult novel and an indictment of the Canadian Government. The story, based on a historical event and spread over three volumes, details the botched clean up of the Irving Whale oil barge by the Canadian Government and the aftermath of this environmental catastrophe (Gervais Pomerleau Worksheet, n.d.).
Reasons for Challenging
Informational inaccuracies, and promotes bad spelling
Locations Challenged:
Magdalen Islands High School, 1995 –
Magdalen Islands High School invited a student to create a display in the high school’s lobby with the theme of the damage caused by the sunken oil barge Irving Whale. The principal asked the student to remove L’affaire du cachalot noir, a young adult novel that deals with the oil barge or the display would be dismantled. The principal also prohibited the reading of other books by the author “because he doesn’t know what he’s talking about” and “because they are full of exaggerations and spelling mistakes.” (The “spelling mistakes” occur when an uneducated character or a bird whose beak is glued together are talking.) The student withdrew the book but, despite the principal’s objections. In the end, the student chose Les colères de l’océan, another title by Gervais Pomerleau, for his end of the year project, ultimately earning one of the highest grades in the class (FreedomtoRead.Ca, 2013).
Sources:
FreedomtoRead.Ca, (2013). Challenged Works: L’affaire du cachalot noir, Tison-Ardent, La complainte des huarts, and Les colères de l’océan
By Gervais Pomerleau. Retrieved February 19, 2019, from http://www.freedomtoread.ca/challenged-works/laffaire-du-cachalot-noir-tison-ardent-la-complainte-des-huarts-and-les-coleres-de-locean/#.XGwsguhKhnK
Gervais Pomerleau Worksheet, (n.d.).
Retrieved February 19, 2019, from http://passeur.chez.com/croissant.html
