Battling the thought police

Re: Lawyers versus the thought police, Bruce Pardy, Jan. 26; Nurse persecuted for believing in biology, Michael Higgins, Jan. 24; and Weaponizing the disciplinary process, Jordan Peterson, Jan. 5

I am one of those lawyers who, it shames me to admit, signed an “OK” to the Law Society of Ontario's Statement of Principles. I didn't like doing it. I argued with myself. But in the end, the fear of the society's power to control my livelihood swayed my decision. I knew full well that refusing to do so — without knowing whether others would do the same — would expose me to all the disciplinary powers that money and influence can exert. The Benchers, after all, consist primarily of well-heeled, Bay Street lawyers who would likely be lost if they found themselves inside a courtroom in Timmins or Hawkesbury.

My point — that efforts by the elite, including politicians, who imagine the world as a comfortable, convivial place where they all agree on how things should be — is nothing new. In 1964, Bob Dylan wrote that “though the rules of the road have been lodged, it's only people's games that you've got to dodge.” All that has changed are the names. Where once the rich and powerful controlled what could and could not be said, today it is the voice of the silver spoon socialists, who speak of inclusiveness and agency while pushing $800 strollers.

The attacks on Jordan Peterson and Amy Hamm continue the tradition. Though I happen to disagree with much of what each says, I deeply support their right to speak their individual minds without threat from their professional guidance counsellors. It is, and has always been, those willing to be unreasonable in the face of conformity who are the causes of social advance. Emily Pankhurst. Martin Luther. Martin Luther King. And it is the ones who, like automatons, adopt the popular views de jour who restrain us.

There is no excuse for a professional body of any sort to try to impose group-think on its members. The role of such a body is, and must be, limited to strictly professional misconduct. Though it might come as a surprise to them, society advances more from courageous dissent than from comfortable unanimity.

BRYAN PASSIFIUME / NATIONAL POST While letter-writer Tom Curran disagrees with much of what Jordan Peterson says, he supports his right to speak his mind without threat from “professional guidance counsellors.”