Jordan Peterson

Peterson was born on 12 June 1962 in Edmonton, Alberta. He is the eldest of three children born to Walter and Beverley Peterson. Beverley was a librarian at the Fairview campus of Grande Prairie Regional College, and Walter was a school teacher. Peterson grew up in a mildly Christian household. In junior high school, Peterson became friends with Rachel Notley and her family. Notley became leader of the Alberta New Democratic Party and the 17th premier of Alberta. Peterson was a member of the New Democratic Party (NDP) from ages 13 to 18. As a teenager, Peterson decided that "religion was for the ignorant, weak and superstitious" and hoped for a left-wing revolution, a hope that lasted until he met left-wing activists in college. From July 1993 to June 1998, Peterson lived in Arlington, Massachusetts, while teaching and conducting research at Harvard University, where he was hired as an assistant professor in the psychology department. Author Gregg Hurwitz, a former student of Peterson's at Harvard, has cited Peterson as an inspiration of his, and psychologist Shelley Carson, former PhD student and now professor at Harvard, recalled that Peterson's lectures had "something akin to a cult following", stating, "I remember students crying on the last day of class because they wouldn't get to hear him anymore." Following his position at Harvard, Peterson returned to Canada in 1998 to become a full professor at the University of Toronto. Peterson's areas of interest span many subdisciplines, most notably psychopharmacology, the psychology of religion, personality psychology, and political psychology. For most of his career, Peterson maintained a clinical practice, seeing about 20 people a week. He has been active on social media, and in September 2016 he released a series of videos in which he criticized Bill C-16. As a result of new projects, he decided to put the clinical practice on hold in 2017, and temporarily stopped teaching as of 2018. In February 2018, Peterson entered into an agreement with the College of Psychologists of Ontario (CPO) after a professional misconduct complaint about his communication and the boundaries he sets with his patients. The college did not consider a full disciplinary hearing necessary and accepted Peterson entering into a three-month undertaking to work on prioritizing his practice and improving his patient communications. Peterson had no prior disciplinary punishments or restrictions on his clinical practice. In March, 2020 the Inquiries, Complaints and Reports Committee ("ICRC") of the College of Psychologists of Ontario ("CPO") investigated statements made by Peterson which were alleged to be "transphobic, sexist, racist" and "not in keeping with any clinical understanding of mental health". They concluded their investigation without making any orders but expressed concern that "the manner and tone in which Dr. Peterson espouses his public statements may reflect poorly on the profession of psychology" and advised him to "offer [his] opinions and comments in a respectful tone in order to avoid a negative perception toward the profession of psychology." In the fall of 2021, Peterson retired from the University of Toronto, becoming professor emeritus. In May 2022, he became chancellor of Ralston College, an unaccredited liberal arts education project. Along with Baroness Stroud and John Anderson, Peterson founded the Alliance for Responsible Citizenship in June 2023. He hosted its international conference in October of that year. In November 2022 the ICRC ordered Peterson to complete a specified continuing education or remedial program regarding professionalism in public statements. The ICRC concluded that some of the language used in his public statements between January 2022 and June 2022 "may be reasonably regarded by members of the profession as disgraceful, dishonourable and/or unprofessional" and that his statements "posed moderate risk of harm to the public" by "undermining public trust in the profession of psychology". They also concluded that he "appeared to be engaging in degrading comments about a former client and making demeaning jokes on the Joe Rogan experience". Peterson denied any wrongdoing and filed for judicial review. Peterson's appeal was reviewed in August 2023 by a panel of three judges of the Ontario Divisional Court, who unanimously upheld the college's initial decision concluding that the ICRC's reasoning in their 2022 decision was "transparent, intelligible, justifiable, and reasonable" and ordered Peterson to pay the CPO $25,000 in legal costs. The decision was upheld on appeal to the Court of Appeal for Ontario in January 2024. In August 2024, the Supreme Court of Canada declined to hear an appeal from the appeal court decision, closing Peterson's legal options for resisting the social media training. In 2024, Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau said under oath that Peterson was funded by Russian state-owned media outlet RT. In response, Peterson said he was considering legal action.