Canadian psychologist Jordan Peterson is claiming that the governing board of his profession in Ontario has threatened to rescind his credentials unless he submits to mandatory social media training. Peterson, who garnered international fame in the late 2010s largely because of lectures that he posted on YouTube and gained a lot of left-wing enemies when he publicly attacked 2016’s bill C-16, which made so-called “misgendering” of a transgendered person a crime, has vowed to make any hearings or other actions taken by the Ontario College of Psychologists (CPO) completely public.
He made the revelation in a series of tweets on Tuesday.
According to Peterson, he must take mandatory social media training and report his progress to the CPO in order to remain a psychologist in good standing. Peterson believes that the CPO has targeted him for his criticism of Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and other political figures, and for his support of the Canadian truckers who protested Covid vaccine mandates in Ottawa last winter.
“The Ontario College of Psychologists @CPOntario has demanded that I submit myself to mandatory social-media communication retraining with their experts for, among other crimes, retweeting @PierrePoilievre and criticizing @JustinTrudeau and his political allies,” he tweeted.
Peterson has been accused of “harming” people, although the psychologist has vehemently denied that any of those who claim to have been harmed are patients of his.
“I have been accused of harming people (although none of the complainants involved in the current action were clients of mine, past or present, or were even acquainted with any of my clients),” he said.
Peterson claims the accusations of “harm” have come from about a dozen people from around the globe, mostly because of his Twitter page and his appearances on the Joe Rogan podcast. “About a dozen people from all over the world submitted complaints about my public statements on Twitter and Rogan over a four year period (out of the 15 million who follow me on social media) claiming that I had ‘harmed’ people (not them) with my views.”
Peterson was removed from Twitter in June over a post in which he referenced actress Ellen Page, who now claims to be an actor called Eliot Page. He admitted he was “irritated” when he tweeted: “Remember when pride was a sin? And Ellen Page just had her breasts removed by a criminal physician.”
“I’ve essentially been banned from Twitter as a consequence,” Peterson said at the time. “I say banned, although technically I’ve been suspended. But the suspension will not be lifted unless I delete the ‘hateful’ tweet in question, and I would rather die than do that.”
“It’s a relief, in some real sense, to be banned,” he continued, “and I regard it under the present conditions as a badge of honor.”
But that, of course, was under Twitter’s old ownership. Soon after Elon Musk took over the microblogging site, Peterson was reinstated without having to remove the Ellen Page tweet.
In a subsequent tweet on the current situation, Peterson lamented that free speech in Canada under Justin Trudeau has become essentially nonexistent. “We are now in a situation in Canada under @JustinTrudeau where practicing professionals can have their livelihoods and public reputations threatened in a very serious manner for agreeing with the Official Opposition and criticizing major government figures.”
He vows to make any actions against him taken by the CPO completely public — whether the governing board likes it or not. He stated that he will go through with the CPO’s mandated training as long as it’s completely transparent, a provision he doubts will be honored.
“I am willing (if @CPOntario concurs, which they won’t) to make absolutely every word of all this fully public so that everyone can decide for themselves what is actually happening,” Peterson offered, “and to let the chips fall where they will in consequence.”
He has already begun the transparency process. Today, he posted the CPO’s list of demands and his refusal to comply.
At this point, Peterson’s clinical practice may mean less to him than his other ventures, which include his employment at the Daily Wire and bestselling book series. Still, it must be galling for him to have to respond to this nonsense in order to keep his well-established psychological bona fides.
And considering that Jordan Peterson has built an empire of himself largely based on YouTube videos, shouldn’t he be the one giving the social media training, instead of having to receive it?
