Nitschke banned from Canada library

Dr Philip Nitschke

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AUSTRALIAN euthanasia activist Dr Philip Nitschke has been banned from a Canadian government-run library for a second time, despite weeks of negotiations and legal assistance from a civil liberties association.

Instead, the director of the assisted suicide group Exit International has found an ally in a church, which has provided an alternative venue, after the Vancouver Public Library on Canada's west coast made a final decision on Wednesday to deny his booking.

"Canada came as a shock and it's still a shock that they're digging in their heels in this issue," Dr Nitschke told AAP on Thursday.

Exit International had booked a room in the library as part of its first North American tour.

The room would have been used for a two-part right-to-die workshop - a public discussion on the pro-euthanasia movement and a private meeting to discuss methods of suicide for those over 55, including instructions taken from The Peaceful Pill Handbook.

The booking was cancelled in September when librarian Paul Whitney wrote Dr Nitschke a letter explaining that the second part of the workshop contravened Canada's criminal code under which it is an offence to help anyone to commit suicide.

It was rescheduled for November when the library's board agreed to further consultations with the group, but was then rejected for a second and final time on Wednesday.

"We're very disappointed about it," Dr Nitschke said over the phone from Darwin.

"It's a library. We can't understand why they're quite happy to have our book in their library but we're not allowed to talk about it."

Mr Whitney said, in a statement, that the workshop remained a legal risk for the library. However, the legal opinions the library's board of directors used to make its decision have been kept private.

The librarian told AAP in September that he was acting in what he believed was "a responsible manner to protect the interests of the library".

Further comment was being sought on Thursday.

Dr Nitschke said Canada's opposition to the assisted suicide workshops came as a surprise considering all his American bookings thus far had been made without such controversy.

Exit International's first Canadian workshop will be at a Vancouver unitarian church on November 4.

"Whatever the reasons of the library were ... it's obviously not effecting the decision by the unitarian church," Dr Nitschke said.

The group has three more workshops planned for Washington and California.