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Why it seems like ages ago, when the University of Toronto leaped into the now infamous Pronoun Wars with a couple of minatory letters to Prof. Jordan Peterson that were as ham-fisted and bullying as they were badly written. Peterson had made it very clear that he would not, under any asserted compulsion from legislation or human rights code, use any newly coined pronouns (they had reached a count of 31 at one point) when addressing transgender students. Succinctly stated, he would not be compelled to speak words others insisted he speak.

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The University of Toronto, which many insist is a world-class institution, responded that as a result of this (then) little-known clinical psychologist, that some of its students had been the subject of “specific and violent threats, including threats of assault, injury and death.” Then in sly malice it went on to hope that these death and other threats “were not his intention” in making the arguments he was making.

The university held back on the bowl of hemlock traditionally offered to enlightened dissidents. However it grimly “urged him,” because of the “threats” and under the requirements of the Ontario Human Rights Code, to “stop making” (these) remarks.