“Cancel Culture”

The onslaught of the College of Psychologists of Ontario against Canada’s most distinguished public intellectual, Professor Jordan B. Peterson, is an embarrassment and a disgrace to the entire country, and a direct threat to the civil liberties of every Canadian. Dr. Peterson is followed by many millions of people on YouTube and X, formerly Twitter, Instagram, TikToK and elsewhere. His first non-academic book, Twelve Rules for Life, has sold more than 10 million English language copies, by far the best-selling non-fiction book in Canadian history. His YouTube videos have had literally billions of views. Yet he is at risk of losing his license to practice as a clinical psychologist in the province where he resides because of the complaints of six people about the “harm” done by his online opinions.

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Justin Trudeau’s government – like his father’s – is at the forefront of the woke assault on our essential human liberties

As a professional, practicing clinical psychologist, I never thought I would fall foul of Canada’s increasingly censorial state. Yet, like so many others – including teachers, nurses, and other professionals – that is precisely what has happened. In my case, a court has upheld an order from the College of Psychologists of Ontario that I undergo social media training or lose my licence to practice a profession I have served for most of my adult life.

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An Ontario appeals court rules that Canadian psychologist Jordan Peterson must undergo social-media training because of the “harm” caused by his political speech.

An Ontario court has ruled that the College of Psychologists of Ontario can require Jordan Peterson to take social-media training with a board-chosen therapist. Failing to abide by the college’s orders could mean that Peterson would lose his clinical license.

The college had claimed earlier this year that several of Peterson’s tweets were “problematic, unethical or unprofessional,” leading it to demand that he take the social-media training. It also demanded that Peterson, who stopped practicing as a clinical psychologist in 2017, make the following public statement: “I may have lacked professionalism in public statements and during a January 25, 2022, podcast appearance [on The Joe Rogan Experience].”

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Nineteen months ago, Mike Ramsay — a school trustee and former police officer who also happens to be Black — was in a board meeting when he came to the defence of a teacher he had never met.

The cost to him so far: being called a white supremacist; being shunned; being censured by his school board; being banned from meetings; enduring a lengthy court battle; and, last month, facing the threat of another disciplinary hearing.

What are the most damaging claims you can make about someone in our society? The ones that would truly damage – if not ruin – the reputation of anyone they were levelled against.

There is “murderer”, I suppose. “Paedophile”, definitely. And then there is “racist”. All are highly reputationally destructive, especially if asserted repeatedly.

But notice that there is a difference between these charges. The first two can be fought in a court and can be easily disproved if they are wrong. If someone claimed, online or off, that you had murdered someone, then you could take them to court for slander or libel and it could be shown in court that you had not in fact murdered anyone. They would have to prove that you did, and if they couldn’t, then they would be in trouble. The same goes for the charge of paedophilia. If someone made that charge against you, it would be possible to sue them and they would be shown in court to have made a baseless claim.

Author and cartoonist Scott Adams has reportedly had his new book “Reframe Your Brain” blocked by Amazon’s Kindle Direct Publishing, and he has apparently been banned for life from the platform.