 I talk about free speech, you know I'm not a huge fan of Jordan Peterson and Jordan Peterson's philosophy, but you have to come to the defense of people when they're being attacked unjustly even when you disagree with them about the specifics. If you remember Jordan Peterson came to prominence in 2016 arguing against Canadian legislation that was going to compel or by some interpretation was going to compel certain types or the right form of speech when it came to gender pronouns and that's when Jordan Peterson really made a name for himself for standing up against that. Well now it turns out that the College of Psychologists of the province of Ontario where I think Jordan Peterson has his license to practice psychology is demanding that Jordan Peterson acknowledge that he has lacked professionalism in a number of his public statements and that he undergo a coaching program of remedial education. Can you imagine? This is not funny but can you imagine Jordan Peterson in a coaching program? I mean who is Jordan Peterson going to let coach him? I mean the guy would run circles around anybody trying to coach him. I mean it would be fun to have a camera at somebody attempting to provide a coaching program for for for him. You know now unfortunately you know these kind of professional organizations like College of Psychologists have standing, Leo standing. I mean you could have a professional organization and you could be a member of it or not be a member of it but these organizations actually have the ability to license you or unlicense you or to kick you out of the profession and make it therefore illegal for you to practice. This is a clear inappropriate role for governments. It makes these kind of private organizations quasi-governmental organizations which is completely inappropriate. They don't have any of the the standards that we have for legislatures or anything else but more than that it is a government intervention in a place where government intervention is inappropriate. It's inappropriate for the government to license or not license. License in general. Again I think in a in a rational society there would be College of Psychologists who would license their members but you could still practice psychology without that license. Consumers might come and say and insist on only going to those people who are licensed and not wanting to be treated by people who are not but we have given these institutions this is true in the United States and true in Canada and true in all the western world. We have given them legal power the power of the gun the power to ban people from practicing psychology. What they are really threatening Jordan Peterson with is revoking his license to practice which is not just the the the license from the college or the license from you know this organization but it is a legal license. It would basically become illegal for Jordan Peterson to continue as a psychologist both a massive injustice to him and an injustice to his patients. I completely understand the College of you know a licensing board saying this person has said things that are unacceptable we don't think he's okay to practice fine but that cannot have legal standing it cannot have you cannot ban somebody from profession because you don't like what he says you know. I wonder if Jordan Peterson agrees with me about professional licensing probably not but it doesn't matter professional licensing with the impromptu of law is wrong period. So the college and now what is it that Jordan Peterson has said that has offended the College of Psychologists. Well part of it is comments on Twitter and part of it is comments he made in Joe Morgan's podcast. Supposedly on November 22nd the college panel released oh so according Jordan Peterson said so the college is saying the comments at issue appear to undermine the public trust in the profession as a whole and raise questions about your ability to carry out your responsibilities as a psychologist unquote. What are the comments? Well he called Elliot Page the transgender actor by his former name Alan and used the pronoun her on Twitter. Now maybe some people offended by this but this is speech this is called free speech. Let's see also you know he called an advisor to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau a prick. He made a sarcastic crack at anti-growth environmentalists for not caring that their energy policies lead to more deaths of poor third-world children. So basically he's made certain political cultural statements that the college doesn't like. He is being penalized for speech for political speech. Nothing about this has anything to do with his view of psychology his treatment of patients. I mean it would be something if they said you're abusing your patients you're yelling at them you're sexually abusing them you're okay. He's speaking about his views on different issues but this reflects badly on the profession as a whole. This is basically an attempt to silence opposition. This is an attempt to basically say this is the party line. If you don't follow the party line if you don't follow the political party line of the College of Psychologists we won't grant you a license to practice psychology. He also he also was you know he called a former client vindictive and he objected to sports illustrated swimsuit cover of a plus size model by saying sorry not beautiful and no amount of authoritarian tolerance is going to change that. I guess this is all offensive speech and hate speech in Canada of course doesn't really have a First Amendment it doesn't have a protections of freedom of speech so they're using this to take away his license imagine doctors now fearing any public statement they make a professional organization yanks their license lawyers anything they say oh lawyers well it turns out that the Law Society of Ontario a few years ago tried to have a mandatory diversity pledge for all lawyers there was luckily there was a member revolt and that was next in 2019 but yes lawyers could be yanked based on what they say based on their political point of view based on their cultural their views and particularly cultural phenomena. Professional organizations will now have now have the power or always have had the power but now using this power I don't think this could ever succeed in the United States given our First Amendment rights but in Canada where there is no strong protection for free speech in Europe where there is no strong protection for free speech professional organizations now can yanked your profession can exclude you from practicing your profession based on your political point of view based on disagreements about not even issues related to your profession issues related from completely outside of your profession so it truly horrible John Peterson again is written quote who exactly was harmed how when to what degree and how was that home measured he says he acknowledges there being about a dozen formal complaints since 2017 wow a dozen formal complaints in six years that's an astoundingly good record given how public is and one demanding a follow-up of a formal reply you know so it's he says this this process is punishment and we all know there is no way in hell that John Peterson is gonna go for coaching so this is you know horrific this is one of the most horrific you know things that I've seen out there clear violation of freedom of speech and a clear abuse of power of the licensing organization but again notice that almost all of these abuses come from the power we have given government all of these abuses come from the fact that we have unlimited government that we've given government unlimited power over our lives and yes in the United States we might protect a certain segment of our lives free speech call it we'll see in a minute you know that doesn't apply to a lot of other things but but the more power government have the more we embrace a mixed economy the more expansive that mixed economy is in terms of intervening in our lives the more difficult it is to protect individual rate or freedom of speech or any right any right it all crumbles and the source is this idea of mixed economy because this idea of giving government more and more power over our lives and in disentangling government first from its only really purpose which is the protection the protection of individual rights rather than the violation of it so on this I stand with Jordan Peterson as much as I disagree with him on so many other topics thank you for listening or watching the Iran book show if you'd like to support the show we make it as easy as possible for you to trade with me you get value from listening you get value from watching show your appreciation you can do that by going to Iran book show dot com slash support go to patreon subscribe star locals and just making a appropriate contribution on any one of those any one of those channels also if you'd like to see the Iran book show grow please consider sharing our content and of course subscribe press that little bell button right down there on YouTube so that you get an announcement when we go live and for you those of you who are ready subscribers and those of you who ready supporters of the show thank you I very much appreciate it