Peterson fires fresh salvo in free speech fight
Marks second action against Wilfrid Laurier
The fervent debate over academic freedom involving Jordan Peterson is rekindled for a new school year with Peterson saying in court documents that Wilfrid Laurier University’s contention he benefited from the controversy is like saying “those who survived the Holocaust should be grateful to their oppressors for teaching them survival skills.”
Peterson filed fresh legal documents Tuesday, including another lawsuit against the Ontario university — his second in three months — claiming Laurier further defamed him in its public defence against his June claim.
Peterson, a psychology professor at the University of Toronto, was only tangentially involved in the original dispute that sparked an academic freedom outcry last November.
Lindsay Shepherd, a teaching assistant at Laurier, played a clip in her class of a television debate between Peterson and another professor over the use of genderneutral pronouns.
She was then called into a disciplinary meeting with three school officials, during which she was castigated for exposing students to Peterson’s message. The officials had much to say about Peterson in the closed-door meeting, much of it unflattering. Nathan Rambukkana, the professor of the course for which Shepherd was assisting, said showing the clip is like neutrally playing a speech by Adolf Hitler.
An audio recording of the meeting caused an uproar and the school later apologized to Shepherd, but not Peterson.
In June, Shepherd and Peterson separately sued Laurier and the officials who conducted the meeting.
Shepherd claimed the school’s “attack” made her “unemployable in academia.” Peterson claimed school officials defamed him in the meeting, “demonized” him and diminished his reputation.
In its defence against Peterson’s suit, the school earlier filed court documents and issued a press release. Peterson’s retort Tuesday took aim at both.
Peterson’s new lawsuit claims further defamation and damage by the school.
A media statement from Laurier at the time accused Peterson of filing his suit “as a means of unduly limiting expression on matters of public interest” and for the purpose of “causing academics and administrators to be more circumspect in their choice of words.”
Peterson’s lawyer, Howard Levitt, said that falsely attacked a core value of his client.
“He was trying to prevent people, in closed-door sessions, from viciously demonizing a student, and himself, when they try to have an academic discussion and suppress her academic freedom. He wants to make sure that professors simply won’t conduct themselves that way; that they not be so politically correct that they won’t allow anyone to have any other view without being attacked.”
Levitt said he expects both lawsuits to be joined into a single action during the court process. Peterson and Shepherd are both represented by Levitt, an employment lawyer who also writes a column for the Financial Post.
Further, Peterson submitted on Tuesday a reply to the statement of defence filed by the university.
It calls Laurier “hypocritical” for publicly apologizing to Shepherd — saying the disciplinary meeting should not have taken place and that she did nothing wrong by showing the Peterson clip — and then claiming in its court filings the officials’ assessments of Peterson in the meeting were true.
Peterson’s reply in the document says: “The Plaintiff is cognizant of the lack of free speech on many university campuses and the adverse consequences to students who do not conform to radical leftist and identity politics. He expressed the hope that his lawsuit, along with Shepherd’s, would end that reality on many university campuses.”
The school acknowledged the new court filings.
“Wilfrid Laurier University has received a reply to its statement of defence in relation to a lawsuit initiated by Jordan Peterson. The university has also received a new claim advanced by Jordan Peterson against the university. The university intends to vigorously defend itself against these lawsuits,” said Kevin Crowley, Laurier’s director of communications and public affairs.
None of the statements from either party have been tested in court.
HE WAS TRYING TO PREVENT PEOPLE ... FROM VICIOUSLY DEMONIZING A STUDENT.