Jordan Peterson’s legal challenge against an order to undergo social media training or risk losing his psychology license in Ontario has been dismissed by Canada’s highest court.
Following the court’s decision, Peterson, a professor emeritus at the University of Toronto in psychology, took to social media to express his reaction.
Peterson was challenging a 2022 order from the College of Psychologists of Ontario (CPO) that mandated him to complete a social media training program focusing on professionalism in public statements. The order came in response to complaints received by the governing body regarding some of Peterson’s social media posts.
The college contended that certain posts made by Peterson, directed at individuals such as a plus-sized model, transgender actor Elliot Page, and various politicians, could be deemed “degrading” to the profession and potentially constitute professional misconduct.
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Peterson stated that the Supreme Court’s decision will result in him undergoing “indefinite re-education” for “publicly opposing those who subject children to sterilization and mutilation.”
Legal Battles
In June 2023, Peterson sought a judicial review, but his application was dismissed in August when the Ontario Divisional Court upheld the CPO’s training mandate.
Peterson appealed the ruling, but in January, the Ontario Court of Appeal rejected his plea to overturn the lower court’s decision.
In a column on Jan. 17, Peterson vowed not only to complete the social media training required by the CPO but also to “publicize every single aspect of it.”
Peterson gained prominence through his YouTube lectures, his bestselling self-help book, “12 Rules for Life: An Antidote to Chaos,” and his opposition to the federal government’s Bill C-16, which added protections for gender identity and expression to the Human Rights Code and Criminal Code.
Peterson’s Twitter account was temporarily suspended for his comments about Elliot Page, but it was reinstated by Elon Musk after he acquired the social media platform in 2022.
