Jordan Petersonthe polarizing Canadian psychologist, has said goodbye to Canada and will now move to the United States, citing personal and professional reasons for the decision.
The news was revealed on a podcast this week, where Peterson and his daughter, Mikhaila Peterson Fuller, discussed his decision to move. He did not say where he has settled, but media reports indicate he lives near his daughter, who is in Arizona.
“Welcome to move to Americaformally,” she said casually to her father during Mikhaila Peterson’s podcast episode.
“I guess that’s what happened, isn’t it?” Is this the big announcement? Peterson said.
“There are undeniable advantages to being here,” he said.
Peterson referred to his ongoing feud with College of Psychologists of Ontarioas well as a bill targeting hate speech, among the main reasons he left his home country.
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“The problem with the Order of Psychologists is very annoying to say the least, and the new law that the Liberals are trying to pass, Bill C-63we would all live in a totalitarian hell if this passes,” he told his daughter.
“The tax situation is out of control. The federal government of Canada is incompetent beyond belief, and it is becoming uncomfortable for me in my Toronto neighborhood,” he added.
Peterson, an author and former professor at the University of Toronto, has not been in active clinical practice since 2017, but remains a member of the College of Psychologists of Ontario.
In 2022, the professional body examined Peterson’s conduct on social media after hearing concerns about whether its posts met its standards.
He determined that online comments were appearing degrading, humiliating and unprofessional – and that this represented a risk to the public.
He ordered him to complete a remedial coaching program to reflect on his approach to public statements and warned him that he could be charged with professional misconduct if he did not comply. Peterson challenged the decision and launched a legal campaign to try to get out of it.
In August of this year, the Ontario Superior Court of Justice rejected Peterson’s application for judicial review, and the Court of Appeal rejected an attempted appeal.
Peterson has long been a controversy magnet in Canada – a public figure with a huge following on social media and whom people seem to either fully embrace or hate.
He first attracted controversy for refusing to use gender-neutral pronouns while teaching at the University of Toronto. He has gained international fame through his sold-out lectures, bestselling books and popular podcast.
Although he has often made headlines for his controversial views on feminism, gender and climate change, Peterson has insisted in the past that any complaints at issue were political and had nothing to do with with his past or present clients as a psychologist.
— With files from The Canadian Press
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