The Ontario College of Psychologists has demanded that Dr. Jordan B. Peterson submit himself to “mandatory social media communication retraining” with its experts.
The November 22, 2022, decision by the Inquiries, Complaints and Reports Committee was confirmed by the College in a statement on its website saying it had “decided to require Dr. Jordan Peterson to successfully complete a prescribed Specified Continuing Education or Remedial Program (SCERP). The substance of the SCERP is a Coaching Program to address issues regarding professionalism in public statements.”
Peterson is a Conservative author, clinical psychologist working at the University of Toronto’s Department of Psychology, and education podcaster. He has a PhD from McGill University and has been in private practice since December 14, 1999.
The retraining was mandated in response to Peterson’s retweets of posts by @Pierre Poilevre and criticism of Canada’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his political allies, Peterson wrote in a series of tweets.
Poilevre is a Canadian parliamentarian from the Conservative Party who is running for Trudeau’s seat.
Let’s make Canada a place where people feel like hard work pays off, where they’re respected, where leaders don’t talk down & point fingers at them, but lift them up.
Where we have a PM that brings people together & gives them the hope that tomorrow can be better than today. https://t.co/PYB79eRpdB
— Pierre Poilievre (@PierrePoilievre) January 3, 2023
Peterson said he has been accused of harming people, although none of the complainants were clients of his, past or present, or “were even acquainted with any of my clients.”
Peterson added that “about a dozen people from all over the world” submitted complaints about his public statements on Twitter and Rogan over a four-year period, claiming he had “harmed” people with his views.
He said he is being required to take the retraining course “with reports documenting my ‘progress’ or face an in-person tribunal and suspension of my right to operate as a licensed clinical psychologist.”
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.
— Dr Jordan B Peterson (@jordanbpeterson) January 3, 2023
The psychologist, who has a social media following of some 15 million, writes about climate change models, gender-change surgery for minors and potential political vengeance activities.
“The SJW (social justice warrior) types have weaponized the domain of professional misconduct complaints and the Colleges themselves have become bastions of woke sensibility,” Peterson wrote, adding “Particularly in oh-so-nice Canada.”
In the extended tweet, the psychologist warned his fellow Canadians, “your physicians, lawyers, psychologists and other professionals are now so intimidated by their commissar overlords that they fear to tell you the truth. This means that your care and legal counsel has been rendered dangerously unreliable. . . To reiterate, I face public disgrace, mandatory political re-education, disciplinary hearing and potential loss of my clinical licensing for agreeing with @PierrePoilievre and criticizing our standing PM @JustinTrudeau.”
Peterson said he is willing “if CPOntario concurs,which they won’t” to make “all this fully public so that everyone can decide for themselves what is actually happening. And to let the chips fall where they will in consequence.”
