A higher court in Canada has ruled that the College of Psychologists of Ontario (CPO) can force Dr. Jordan Peterson to attend mandatory “media retraining program” classes after it pursued complaints against him in relation to alleged professional misconduct in relation to social media comments.
Reacting to the decision, Peterson tweeted to ‘warn’ the CPO that the “war” had just started and that there was nothing they could take from him that he is “unwilling to lose”.
“You have been warned,” he said.
A higher court in Canada has ruled that the Ontario College of Psychologists indeed has the right to sentence me to re-education camp. There are no other legal avenues open to me now.
It's capitulate to the petty bureaucrats and the addle-pated woke mob or lose my professional…
— Dr Jordan B Peterson (@jordanbpeterson) January 17, 2024
The case arose after a series of complaints were made against Peterson in relation to comments he has made on social media and during interviews on popular podcasts like The Joe Rogan Show.
Law professor Bruce Pardy wrote that the CPO ’s committee “did not conduct a disciplinary hearing and never concluded that Peterson committed professional misconduct. Nevertheless, the college has promised that failing to complete the program may result in an allegation of professional misconduct and the commencement of actual disciplinary proceedings.”
Peterson has called for the CP0 to “resign” and “apologize” to him.
I want the entire current crop of minions at the College of Psychologists to publicly apologize and then resign–en masse: @CPOntario
They want me to undergo re-education, which they know will take up my time and fail in any case, so they can undermine my reputation and take my…
— Dr Jordan B Peterson (@jordanbpeterson) January 17, 2024
In January last year Peterson – who is an emeritus professor of psychology from the University of Toronto – released a file of documents detailing the accusations made against him.
At the time he took to twitter saying “About a dozen people from all over the world submitted complaints about my public statements on Twitter and Rogan over a four year period” continuing that this “dozen” was “out of the 15 million who follow me on social media” and that it was being claimed that he “harmed” people other than the complainants themselves with his “views”.
One complainant who claims to have been a client of Dr. Peterson – although in his notes attached to the relevant documentation Peterson firmly denies this – accused him of ‘encouraging people to take their own lives’ while a guest on the Joe Rogan Experience Podcast. (Episode #1769)
In November 2022 the CPO ordered Peterson to undergo remedial education or face the risk of losing his licence with Peterson arguing that this infringed on his freedom of expression.
Under the CPO’s order, Peterson must pay for the remediation himself. The sessions will take place over an unspecified amount of time until the educator feels that Peterson has been sufficiently ‘retrained’.
In a previous appearance on his daughter, Mikhaila Peterson’s podcast, Prof. Peterson vowed that if this “re-education” did go ahead that he would ‘broadcast every moment of it,’
He accused the CPO of “weaponizing bureaucracy” against him.