Jordan Peterson Says Regulatory College Offered to Waive Legal Costs if He Resigns

Dr. Jordan Peterson speaks during the Rescue the Republic rally in Washington on Sept. 29, 2024. Madalina Vasiliu/The Epoch Times

Canadian psychologist and author Jordan Peterson says he has received an offer from his regulatory college that paying the court-ordered sum he owes the college after losing his court challenge could be waived provided he resigns from his profession.

In a National Post opinion piece published on Oct. 11, Peterson said lawyers representing the College of Psychologists and Behaviour Analysts of Ontario (CPBAO) have informed him and his lawyers that “a settlement offer might be possible” if he forgoes his licence to practise psychology in the province.

“Their first offer was (get this — and I still can’t believe it): ‘If Dr. Peterson agrees to resign, we would be willing to forego the legal costs the court ruled he owes us!’” Peterson wrote.

The Epoch Times contacted the CPBAO for comment but didn’t hear back by publication time.

On Aug. 23, 2023, the Ontario Divisional Court ruled against Peterson and said he has to pay $25,000 to the college.

Peterson, a professor emeritus of psychology at the University of Toronto, first came under the college’s scrutiny in 2022 after the regulatory college received complaints about a number of his social media posts.

The college alleged that some of his posts directed at several politicians and a plus-sized model, transgender actor Elliot Page, may be “degrading” to the profession and could amount to professional misconduct.

The college’s complaints committee concluded as such in November 2022 and ordered Peterson to undergo a social media training program on professionalism in making public statements. Failure to comply could mean losing his licence and ability to practise his profession in Ontario.

Peterson, who said the college was infringing on his right to freedom of expression, filed for a judicial review of the college’s order in June 2023, but his application was dismissed by the Ontario Divisional Court in August 2023. Peterson’s appeal of the court ruling to the Ontario Court of Appeal was dismissed on Jan. 16.  A subsequent application he made to the Supreme Court of Canada to hear the case was denied on Aug. 8, after which Peterson said he'll undergo the mandatory training.

Peterson noted in his commentary that the court costs, though not an inconsiderable sum, are “a mere pittance” in comparison to what he says the ordeal of the college’s scrutiny of him has cost him in recent years.

Information Redacted

In his Oct. 11 commentary, Peterson says the college started the negotiation because it is now “backed in a corner.”

Peterson said that after the Supreme Court of Canada dismissed his request to hear his challenge of the lower court’s order in August, he requested from the college the names of those who are “ready to re-educate” him.

He said he received a document that listed the “social media experts” who would conduct the training, but their names were redacted.

“One problem remained, and a serious one, indeed, practically speaking: the very lines in the document that contained the identifying information of the experts (names, email addresses, professional standing, and telephone numbers) had been redacted,” Peterson wrote.

He added the college followed up subsequently that the names “were presently unavailable” due to some administrative issues, though no details were provided.

“Note also that since it is now early October, the college only has about seven weeks to straighten out the mess they created around themselves, without violating their own rules, and to repair me one way or another, in the hopefully permanent manner they are devoutly hoping to manage,” he wrote.

The Ontario Divisional Court’s August 2023 decision ruled that the “coaching program was to begin within three months and be completed within twelve months.” Now that Peterson’s request for hearing to the Supreme Court was rejected in August of this year, the CPBAO has until November to have him complete the program.

He said the fact that not a single “social media expert” was available to take on the task could be due to a comment he had made on his YouTube channel that he would make “EVERY BIT OF IT public, and in the most broadly distributed sort of way!”

In a Jan. 17 commentary, Peterson similarly said he would undergo the social media training, but would “publicize every single bit of it.”

That comment came a day after a ruling by the Ontario Court of Appeal on Jan. 16, when a three-judge panel rejected Peterson’s request to quash the Ontario Divisional Court’s decision that enforced the college’s training order.

The first court in 2023 ruled that the college had acted appropriately in disciplining Peterson.

“When individuals join a regulated profession, they do not lose their Charter right to freedom of expression. At the same time, however, they take on obligations and must abide by the rules of their regulatory body that may limit their freedom of expression,” the court’s decision document says.

“Following that transparent and coherent discussion, the panel concluded, reasonably, that Dr. Peterson’s behaviour raised a moderate risk of harm to the public.”

Jennifer Cowan contributed to this report.