The authoritarian extermination of free speech harms us all, regardless of the source.  The only way to protect free speech is to speak freely.  Speak now.

In 1958, Martin Luther King stated that "... the greatest tragedy of this period of social transition was not the strident clamor of the bad people, but the appalling silence of the good people." Dr Jordan Peterson was born four years later and has been the living manifestation of this insight, speaking with both passion and intelligence during our own period of strident clamor and massive social transition.  Now Dr Jordan Peterson needs the rest of us to not be silent, but to speak on his behalf.

The Ontario Psychological Association has initiated proceedings against Dr Jordan Peterson that may result in the suspension of his license as a Clinical Psychologist.  Their reasons are not related to his very successful clinical practice, or his very successful work as a Professor of Psychology teaching thousands of grateful students at Harvard, and the University of Toronto, but to his public comments about a variety of controversial public issues.  The complainants are not clients of Dr Peterson, but online contacts, some anonymous, some falsely claiming they are clients, who are attempting to "cancel" Dr Peterson by leveraging the College of Psychologists of Ontario as a weapon.  Instead of repudiating these claims, as they should have done, the CPO has decided to amplify the claims and use them as a reason to threaten Dr Peterson with professional extermination.

This is not a "left" issue.  This is not a "right" issue.  This is an issue of free speech, democracy, authoritarianism, abuse of power, and whether those powerful bodies who control our professional lives -- near governmental regulatory bodies and our employers -- should have the inherent and unchallenged power to "cancel" us for exercising our right to speak our minds on the issues of the day.

Dr Peterson is not perfect.  He is not a hero.  Nor am I.  Nor are you, dear reader.  He is a good man, living his life with integrity and candor.  He deserves criticism, as do we all.  He does not deserve this.

Martin Niemöller said it best.  "First they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out—because I was not a socialist.  Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out—because I was not a trade unionist. Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—because I was not a Jew. Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me."

Speak now.  Speak now, not because you agree with Dr Peterson, but because you, dear reader, are next.