As Hungarian Conservative reported, on 3 January 2023 the Ontario College of Psychologists (CPO) demanded that the famous Canadian clinical psychologist, Dr Jordan B Peterson, undergo a ‘mandatory social-media communication retraining’, or they would suspend his clinical licence. Recently,

the Supreme Court of Canada, without reasoning, denied Dr Peterson’s appeal against the order that forces him to undergo social media communication ‘retraining’

by the CPO as a punitive measure for his controversial social media posts. Dr Peterson will have to pay 250 dollars per hour for the mandatory retraining, which, as he phrased, is ‘not a scientific nor a clinical speciality by any standing’. 

Dr Peterson’s lawyer, Howard Levitt, reacted to the court’s decision to CBC News by calling it ‘a tragic day for Canada’ and ‘a tragedy for freedom of speech in this country.’ ‘It seems ironic, even tragic, that he, one of the most adept persons in social media in this country and beyond, is going to attend ‘re-education’ from people inherently less skilled and knowledgeable than he is himself,’ Levitt added. 

Following the dismissal of Dr Peterson’s appeal, this is what he wrote in an X post: ‘The court has rejected my appeal regarding the decision of the CPO to subject me to indefinite re-education @CPBAOntario, primarily for publicly opposing the butchers and liars subjecting children to sterilization and mutilation. I am also required to pay whatever court costs the College accrued in relation to my appeal. I am now bereft of options on the legal front in Canada. I guess it’s. On with the show.’

Dr Peterson’s Reaction: Social Media Retraining Will be Aired Soon

In a podcast conversation with his daughter, Mikhaila Peterson, Dr Peterson reacted to the court’s dismissal of the complaint: ‘I’ll be sitting down with an expert, whatever that means, and they’re going to do whatever it is they think they can do to make me into an entirely different sort of creature than I am. And so I’m sort of morbidly curious about that. Yeah, Jordan Peterson’s re-education is coming to the airwaves soon.’

In 2022, the CPO told Peterson if he didn’t undergo a social media training program, he would risk losing his licence to practise. The appeal for the forced re-education was based on complaints, which included Dr Peterson’s whole transcript of his three-hour-long discussion on Joe Rogan’s podcast, his tweets in which he criticized Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, his former chief of staff, Gerald Butts, an Ottawa city councillor, and in which made a joke about the prime minister of New Zealand, Jacinda Ardern. As CBC News highlighted, Dr Peterson, a registered member of the CPO since 1999 who stopped seeing patients in 2017, stated that his statements were not made in his capacity as a clinical psychologist.

Dr Peterson’s lawyer, Howard Levitt, told True North: ‘It is an invitation to extortion and to levying personal vendettas by threatening people with loss of their professional licenses if a complaint is made against them that something they said or wrote might offend the sensibilities of their regulatory bodies.’

Denial of Free Speech 

As Peter Ridd highlighted in his Institute for Public Affairs article, Dr Peterson’s case showcases the troubling state of free speech in Canada. Ridd stressed: ‘The Ontario judges have agreed that the CPO has the power to mandatorily moderate Peterson’s speech and, if it deems it warranted, to take away his licence to practise if he fails to comply. He has free speech, claims the judges, but only if he sacrifices his professional opinion.’

As opposed to the officialdom of Canada, the Hungarian government and the people of Hungary give Dr Peterson all the respect he deserves.

During his 2019 visit to Budapest, Dr Peterson was received by Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán and during his 2022 visit, apart from his full house show at the Budapest Congress Centre, Dr Peterson also gave a lecture at the Sándor Palace, the official residence and offices of the President of Hungary, where he was awarded the civilian class of the Grand Cross of the Order of Merit of the Republic of Hungary by former President of the Republic Katalin Novák. During his visit on 9 May as part of his Beyond Order: 12 More Rules for Life Tour, Dr Peterson delivered a captivating 2-hour lecture to a full house at the Papp László Budapest Arena and in the following months, Dr Peterson was invited back to Budapest to deliver his address at the 5th International Demographic Summit.

As Peter Ridd stated in the aforementioned article, raising awareness of Dr Peterson’s case is essential as ‘We cannot stand silently by and allow freedom of speech to be taken away from dedicated professionals.’

Related articles: