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It wasn’t long ago that University of Toronto psychology professor Jordan Peterson’s future seemed somewhat in doubt. He rose to prominence — many would say notoriety — last autumn with his public refusal to use transgender and non-binary students’ pronouns of choice: “xe,” “zir” and “they,” for example. It was part of a multi-pronged YouTube campaign against political correctness and “compelled speech,” and against federal legislation that would make gender expression and gender identity prohibited grounds for discrimination.

At times he seemed to question trans students’ very existence: “I don’t know what the options are if you’re not a man or a woman,” he said. “It’s not obvious to me how you can be both because those are by definition binary categories.” The reaction was what you would expect.

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Protesters at U of T demanded his ouster. Professors at McMaster University backed out of a debate with him — in one case citing security concerns, in other cases citing nothing at all. Protesters shouted and air-horned down his attempt to hold a talk at McMaster instead, and speakers at a rally in support of him at U of T were confronted by a white noise machine. A petition demanded Peterson be uninvited from an event at the National Gallery of Canada titled “Exploring the Psychology of Creativity,” even as it admitted he had “years of expertise” studying precisely that.