Canadian psychologist Jordan Peterson agreed to undergo social media training as required by the Ontario Psychologists Association, the province's governing body for psychology. In 2022, the association decided that Peterson, who has gained worldwide fame for not bowing to transgender ideology and other left-wing positions, would lose his certification if he did not undergo such training.
'Degrading' social media posts
The university determined that Peterson's social media posts, particularly those about transgender people, could be deemed “degrading.” The university focused on a post about a former city council member in which Peterson declared the person's use of “they/them” pronouns “appalling, self-righteous, amoral behavior.” The person was not Peterson's patient, and Peterson claims he has never received complaints from any of his patients.
Peterson has been defending himself against the allegations since they became public. His lawyer, Howard Levitt, called the Supreme Court of Canada's decision not to hear the case “a tragic day for Canada.” In an email to the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, Levitt said:
It is ironic, even tragic, that one of the most talented social media figures in the country and the world would be “re-educated” by people who are essentially less skilled and knowledgeable than him. This decision is a tragedy for free speech in this country.
LGBT activist group Egale Canada welcomed the decision, with the group's legal director, Bennett Jensen, saying in a statement:
2SLGBTQI communities often face discrimination and barriers when accessing health care, so it is particularly harmful for clinical psychologists to make transphobic, discriminatory, and false claims that directly impede the safety and autonomy of transgender people. Psychologists belong to a group of professionals that act as gatekeepers to gender-affirming health care and must be held accountable to certain professional standards.
The candid psychologist
Peterson hasn't practiced law since 2017, when he famously criticized Canada's Bill C-16, claiming that it would “mandate” certain speech and force people to use pronouns of their choice (whether those pronouns were real or invented).
He has also come under fire for his comments about climate hoaxes on Joe Rogan's podcast, where he mused about the “religious” fervor of climate alarmists and said that the “fastest way out” of the alleged climate crisis is to “make all the poor people rich as quickly as possible.”
“This kind of seemingly comical nihilism would be funny if it weren't so dangerous,” said Michael Mann, the man behind the infamous “hockey stick graph” that features so prominently in Al Gore's “An Inconvenient Truth.”
Why does he follow the “training”?
Peterson spoke Friday about “training” with his daughter, Mikhaila.
I'm going to have an interview with a specialist, I don't know what that means, and they're going to do whatever they think they can to turn me into a completely different kind of creature than I am, so I'm morbidly curious about that…
Incidentally, I have been vocal in my opposition to the genocide and sterilization of children. I consider it a crime against humanity, but my colleagues in the fields of psychology, psychiatry and medicine have proven less courageous in enforcing it….
And I am entirely happy with what I have said on all these fronts, because I believe what is happening with so-called gender affirming care is the worst occupational scandal since the Second World War.
“Everything about it is a lie and a deception,” the psychologist concluded.
Peterson also had harsh words for Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, calling him “an incompetent narcissist who has made Canada a worse country.”
Why did Peterson throw himself into the reeducation efforts of the Ontario Association of Psychologists? He is no longer in clinical practice and seems averse to the organization's political ideology.
“Part of it is just stubbornness,” Peterson said.
I'm not going to let a bunch of stupid ideological idiots steal something under the guise of moral intervention.
He also had words of warning for those who try to “re-educate” him.
“I think I can give a warning to anyone who wants to do that: Don't do it. Your life will never be the same again.”
