As University of Toronto psychology professor Dr. Jordan Peterson says, “Every day something happens that’s true but which makes the absurdity from the day before seem benign.”
He was either referring to the __news out of Alberta this week, the friendly little “gender unicorn” of that province’s teachers’ association, or “otherkin,” about a recent essay by University of Cambridge professor Pedro Feijo which explores those who identify, ah, more broadly than human (as elves, for instance, or “human pups”), or maybe it was the happy announcement from Justice Minister Jody Wilson-Raybould that all new federal judges will be asked about their gender identity and the committees which screen them will be trained to be on the lookout for and ferret out “unconscious bias.”
Peterson, of course, is the man who dared question the new push for genderless pronouns — he says he won’t use “zie,” “zher,” “they” or any of the two dozen made-up words now in fashion — in a series of YouTube videos and found himself on the front lines of a battle for campus freedom of speech.
While he’s been inundated with messages of support from outside U of T, on campus he’s been protested against and criticized (and vandalized, with the lock on his office door glued shut last Saturday) and the university brass has hardly rushed to his side.
UofT prof Jordan Peterson’s office door glued shut In fact, Thursday on its website, the university announced that “plans are underway … for an academic forum” to discuss the issues Peterson raised, including Bill C-16, which will add “gender expression” and “gender identity” to both the federal human rights act and, more importantly, to the Criminal Code of Canada, adding these as categories of those protected from discrimination and hate speech.
(The bill, without any public consultation, is now headed to the justice committee.)
David Cameron, the arts and science dean who co-signed an Orwellian warning letter to Peterson last month, duly expressed regret that the discussion thus far “has created an environment in which harmful and threatening statements have been made, putting some vulnerable members of our community at risk. Trolls have said vile and hateful things on social media that have caused justifiable fear and anxiety.”
Now a dean of the university is responding to trolls? Really?
Thus did Cameron continue his nasty campaign, begun with his Oct. 18 letter, of effectively blaming Peterson for inciting fear in the trans community. As Cameron said in that letter, “… in view of these impacts … we urge you to stop repeating these statements.”
Cameron, it’s worth noting, earns roughly twice — $312,359 according to the most recent Ontario sunshine list — what Peterson does.
Indeed, the best-paid senior levels of the university’s Anti-Racism and Cultural Diversity Office, or ARCDO, and its human resources arm, and its most comfortable elite seem preoccupied with Peterson.
Sioban Nelson, the vice-provost of faculty and academic life who co-signed Cameron’s warning letter, earned $265,860 last year.
The chair of the psychology department, Susanne Ferber — who first warned Peterson he might be breaching the Ontario Human Rights Code — pulled in $184,732.
Cheryl Regehr and Kelly Hannah-Moffat, respectively vice-president and provost and vice-president of human resources and equity, and who were copied on Cameron’s letter and a petition signed by some faculty and students, earned $357,999 and $221,692.
Anti-racism and bias awareness training is mandatory for university HR staff, and the definition that is used doesn’t stop at equitable opportunities, which is defensible, but includes, as university documents say, “both a process and an outcome,” or “systemic fair treatment of people that results in equitable opportunities and outcomes for everyone.”
That may explain some of the activities at the university this month, brought to the student body by the HR and ARCDO offices — a discussion of “privilege on campus”; a discussion of “students feeling safe in classrooms to express themselves verbally,” and of course, the “decolonizing conference” at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, etc., etc.
With any luck, someone will bring up the gender unicorn beloved by the Alberta Teachers Association as part of its “Prism Toolkit for Safe and Caring Discussions” that aim to help teachers create more gender-inclusive classrooms in high school.
That toolkit, by the way, also suggests that teachers address students in gender-neutral terms such as friends, folks or “comrades.”
True stuff, as Peterson might say, and beyond absurd. But something wackier will come down the pipe today: We are firmly in that sort of world now.
• Email: cblatchford@postmedia.com | Twitter: blatchkiki
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