When Obedience Becomes Resistance

While I was a grad student in the Masters of Branding program at the School of Visual Arts, Dr. Ilene Feinman taught a course about branding social justice movements. She examined social movements through their signifiers: the visuals, slogans, and actions that evolved into recognizable brands. Examples are everywhere across the political spectrum: the horn-honking of the Ottawa trucker occupation, the red MAGA hat, black “F-CK Trudeau” flags, the rainbow flag of LGBTQ+ rights, the pink “pussyhat” of the Women’s March, and hashtags like #MeToo and #BlackLivesMatter. Unlike commodity brands that sell products, social justice brands trade in meaning and solidarity, turning symbols into rallying points for collective resistance and action.

Resistance can emerge just as easily from obedience as from defiance. Obedience, when taken literally, can become a tactic of passive protest. This is called malicious compliance or work-to-rule; it involves doing exactly what the rules demand and nothing more.

This idea immediately came to mind when I read that the Edmonton Public School Board was removing more than 200 books to comply with a new Ministerial Order on “sexual content.” The list of banned books included classics like The Handmaid’s Tale and Brave New World. At first glance, it looked like a shocking move on the part of the EPSB. It quickly became clear that they were following the new Ministerial Order but their compliance was so literal as to reveal a contradiction in their motivation.

The Board itself acknowledged this tension in a statement dated August 29, 2025:

“Families and community members have raised numerous concerns… The Board of Trustees agrees with these concerns and voiced our opposition to the provincial changes before the Ministerial Order was issued. As a result of the Ministerial Order, several excellent books will be removed from our shelves this fall… We encourage anyone… to contact the Minister of Education and Childcare directly.”

The polarity of the message is unmistakable: the board disagrees with the Order, but will follow the law so literally that the law itself is on display. It is one thing to ban a book on paper. It is another to remove it in front of students, parents, and teachers who know its value. In terms of national identity, book banning is a decidedly un-Canadian thing to do. Although education is a provincial responsibility, provincial governments and school boards are still bound by the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

Passive resistance has been a recurring tool for Canadian workers and communities, such as:

• B.C. teachers have run work-to-rule campaigns, refusing extracurriculars and strictly following contracts to expose their unpaid contributions.

• Canada Post workers have slowed delivery by doing only what contracts require, revealing how much the system relies on goodwill.

• The Winnipeg General Strike of 1919 showed how quickly civic functions collapse when workers withdraw flexibility.

• First Nations communities, including Grassy Narrows, have combined procedural compliance with blockades to expose broken treaties and environmental damage.
  

Each case underscores the same idea: that laws and directives hold less power than the cooperation and interpretation of those who carry them out.

The Ministerial order and the Edmonton School Board’s action reflect Alberta’s current political climate, shaped by the UCP government’s emphasis on parental rights, curriculum reforms, and centralized control over education. These actions align with wider culture war battles over “woke” content, gender, and race, influenced by both Alberta’s conservative identity and trends seen in U.S. states. In this environment, schools become battlegrounds for ideology, with local decisions echoing provincial and continental pressures.

Adding to this tension, Alberta public schools receive among the lowest per-student funding in Canada, and public school teachers are preparing for possible strike action within weeks. Within this fragile system, the EPSB’s act of malicious compliance highlights censorship rules and an underfunded public service.

Like Dr. Feinman taught us, not every act of resistance becomes a movement or has the depth or breadth to evolve into a social justice brand. The Edmonton Public School Board’s actions may not crystallize into a unifying symbol like a sound, a hat, or a hashtag, but it certainly conveys a strong message about what they stand for. The publicity generated by their act of malicious compliance has had its desired effect. Margaret Atwood herself called out the decision with a stinging social media post on X and, as of this writing, the story has made headlines around the world, drawing global attention to a local issue.