Queen’s University is standing by a plan to have a controversial academic speak Monday evening, despite protests from students and faculty.

University of Toronto psychology professor Jordan Peterson, in the midst of a tour to support his bestselling book 12 Rules for Life: An Antidote to Chaos, is to give a lecture titled The Rising Tide of Compelled Speech in Canada.

Peterson has been criticized for refusing direction to use nongender pronouns and opposing Bill C-16, which extends legal protections to transgender people.

His critics have accused him of promoting far-right, racist, homophobic and Islamophobic ideas.

"We feel that Prof. Peterson is coming to Kingston to spread an inaccurate and frequently debunked interpretation of Bill C-16," said Ian Clark, a psychology student and one of the organizers of a protest scheduled for Monday afternoon before Peterson’s lecture.

"We don’t feel that what he has to say, in this case, passes factual muster and is to be elevated to the point of a university guest lecturer."

Clark called Peterson’s concerns about free speech "disingenuous" and "not consistent" and said he was motivated by "prejudice and not concern for free speech."

"I think if we lived in a world where anyone could get a speaking gig at Queen’s, then it would be within the context of free speech rights, but there are already standards about who does and doesn’t get to speak at Queen’s," Clark said in an interview Wednesday afternoon.

In an email to the Whig-Standard, protest organizer Claire Constance said the rally is a response to Peterson’s anti-trans and racist rhetoric.

"We believe that Peterson uses his academic credentials to delegitimize the existence of transgender and non-binary people," Constance wrote. "Peterson erroneously conflates different laws and interpretations in different jurisdictions to make hyperbolic, conspiratorial claims about the government forcing people to say certain things, which he calls ‘compelled speech.’"

Constance echoed Clark’s argument.

"We are protesting the elevation of these wilfully ignorant, wilfully incorrect, transphobic, racist rhetoric to the academic stage — to, arguably, the most prestigious venue on campus," she wrote.

"In a university, not everyone can speak at all venues at all times, so when a faculty plays host to a topic, it is saying that — for good or ill — it has sufficient academic merit to be worth entertaining. How did a transparent scare tactic clear the bar for Queen’s law?"

Opposition to the lecture prompted university principal Daniel Woolf to issue a statement defending the lecture on the grounds of free speech and open discussion.

"Far too often, universities, and university academics, have been attacked by increasingly polarized interest groups seeking to stifle thoughtful or respectful examinations of opposing ideas," Woolf wrote. "Hate speech aside, failing to explore or confront ideas with which we disagree through disciplined and respectful dialogue, debate and argument, does society a disservice, weakens our intellectual integrity, and threatens the very core of what Queen’s, and any university, should be about."

One response to Woolf’s statement was an open letter signed by 113 faculty, staff, students and alumni that criticized the lecture and accused the principal of ignoring the work the university has done in recent years to address the treatment of marginalized groups on campus. "First, you fail to recognize that these ‘debates’ take place within the context of, and indeed contribute to, a rising tide of white supremacy and hate," the letter stated. "Second, you fail to acknowledge the members of the Queen’s community who are directly targeted by the anti-trans, racist, colonialist, anti-Semitic and Islamophobic bigotry and violence that the speaker and his followers promote."

Queen’s law professor Bruce Pardy, who is organizing the Liberty Lecture series of which Peterson’s lecture is part, commended the individuals and groups that have spoken out against the event, but he said hearing differing viewpoints is an important part of university life.

"I think it is perfectly fine and admirable for people to express what they think, to express their views in response to what someone else has said," Pardy said in an interview.

"The part that is problematic is the proposition that if somebody is going to say something that I don’t agree with, and maybe even that I find offensive, that therefore they should not be allowed to speak. If you applied that as the rule about when people were to say something, most speech at universities would not be allowed."

Pardy called Peterson one of the country’s most important intellectuals in Canada today, and he said many of the people who object to him have not read much of what he has written.

The protest against Peterson’s lecture is to begin at 4 p.m. on Monday outside Grant Hall. Peterson’s lecture is set to begin at 4:30 p.m. inside.

elferguson@postmedia.com