Why we need readers in a democracy

Can our citizens not only read but also read with enough experience and fluency to weigh complex information? To recognize propaganda when it is presented as news? To make their own ideas known to elected leaders? If not, are we a true democracy? Writers Daniel Poliquin, Dionne Brand and Anosh Irani are among Canada’s finest novelists, poets, playwrights, and essayists. They engage in lively and provocative conversation to lay out the connection between a reading population and a democratic one.