In what he calls his “plan to strengthen free speech in Canada,” Conservative leadership candidate Pierre Lemieux says that as prime minister, he would immediately repeal Bill C-16 and create a legislative committee that would review all Canadian laws that govern speech “to ensure that they properly balance freedom of speech and reasonable limits.”

Bill C-16, currently before the Senate, seeks to amend the Canadian Human Rights Act and the Criminal Code of Canada by adding gender identity and gender expression to the list of prohibited grounds for discrimination.

In a campaign email sent out Monday morning, Lemieux said the release of this platform point follows a meeting he had with Jordan Peterson — a Toronto-based university professor who has received national media attention for his critiques of political correctness and for his refusal to use non-binary pronouns.

“Freedom of speech in Canada is under attack,” Lemieux is quoted as saying in the campaign email, following his meeting with Peterson. “Protection from discrimination is entirely different from not wanting to be offended. Chronic political correctness is strangling free and respectful debate in Canada and it has to stop.”

Peterson, who teaches psychology at the University of Toronto, also takes issue with Bill C-16. He argues the government shouldn’t be forcing its citizens to use certain words, and insists this is a matter of freedom of speech.

“It’s one thing to tell people that there’s certain words they can’t say, but it’s an entirely different thing to tell them there are words that they have to say,” Peterson told the Toronto Star in November.

Peterson also claims Bill C-16 will criminalize the failure to use an individual’s preferred pronoun(s), and that he could be prosecuted under the new law for refusing to do so.

“It is wrong to jail someone for holding different attitudes or beliefs, or for simply refusing to use specific words on demand in a free society,” Peterson is quoted as saying in Lemieux’s campaign email. “The last thing we need are more laws forcing Canadians to use specific, made-up words ‘on demand’ or face penalties.”

Other academics and politicians have insisted the proposed legislation, which the House of Commons voted 248 to 40 to pass at second reading in October, does not criminalize free speech.

Lemieux says his proposed parliamentary committee would invite Peterson, among others, to testify and provide advice for how Canadian laws can be reviewed.

The Monday email also states that Peterson has “indicated support” for the Tory candidate’s proposals.

Lemieux is one of 13 official candidates in the running to replace former Conservative leader Stephen Harper; he joined the race in late November 2016. Saskatchewan MP and rival candidate Brad Trost also opposes Bill C-16.

He has announced a couple other platform points to date. In December, he announced his intention to initiate a “respectful discussion” about occurrences of sex-selective abortion and to “take action” to end the practice.

And in an email sent out Jan. 6, 2017, Lemieux said he wants to reform the Supreme Court. He said he would give Parliament a vote on the appointment of Supreme Court judges, implement term limits on the nine justices, and “establish a process through which Parliamentarians hold judges accountable.”